New census data provide insights into Berlin’s vacancy rate and rent burden

Data from the 2022 census have now been published. The data were collected during a random survey of 12 percent of the population. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also gathered information from 23 million property owners and 8,000 property companies as part of its building and housing census. One key finding is the national vacancy rate, which stood at approximately 1.9 million apartments on the census date of 15 May 2022. According to calculations from Destatis, Germany as a whole therefore has a vacancy rate of 4.3 percent. Despite the housing shortage, which is particularly prevalent in urban centres, there are thousands of empty apartments in several major German cities. On the census date, there were more than 40,000 unoccupied apartments in Berlin, more than 20,000 in Munich, and slightly less than 20,000 in each of Hamburg and Leipzig. At a national level, 55 percent of vacant apartments had been unoccupied for over a year, while 38 percent were expected to be available for occupancy within the next three months. The city states of Berlin, Hamburg, and Bremen had higher rates of quickly available flats (between 52 and 61 percent) compared to the national average. Among vacant apartments, 24 percent were due to be modernised or refurbished, 7 percent were vacant for sale or owner-occupation, and only 4 percent were slated for demolition. In Berlin, the vacancy rate has decreased since the last census in 2011, when around 66,000 apartments were empty. The average price per square metre for in-place rents in Berlin in 2022 was EUR 7.67, lower than in Munich, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt am Main. Moreover, Berlin’s rent burden, at 27.2 percent, was also lower than the national average of 27.8 percent.