Real Estate Bubble in Germany. The German Residential Real Estate Market for the Presence of a Bubble (PDF)

Master's Thesis in the subject Economy - Real estate industry, , language: English, abstract: The starting point for this thesis and the associated question were price developments observable on the residential property market as well as increased media reporting. Against this background, the following question was examined with scientific methods within the framework of this thesis: Is a bubble formation recognisable in the German residential real estate market and what regional differences can be identified in answering this question?

As a first step, price-influencing factors were examined in more detail and the price development relative to annual rent ratio, income and construction costs was examined. In addition, the effect of the ECB's interest rate policy and the interplay between property prices, monetary policy and asset price inflation were analysed. Hereby it became apparent that the significant price increase for residential property since 2010, and especially accelerated since 2016, can be explained against the backdrop of the extremely low interest rate level and the considerable expansion of money supply.

In order to be able to identify price bubbles on the residential property market in a measurable and comprehensible way, the price development was analysed in a second step with the mathematical procedure according to Diba and Grossmann, which uses the Augmented Dickey Fuller Test. The procedure is based on the premise that the price of a good is related to its fundamental value. To examine the price development in the residential property market, the fundamental value used for comparison purposes is derived from the development of the rent price index, the index of average gross monthly earnings and the construction cost index. The house price index was used as a price indicator for residential property. With the help of the Augmented-Dickey-Fuller Test, the development of the various indices was examined and compared with regard to their degree of stationarity. This investigation was carried out for the overall German residential real estate market in the observation period 2010-2021 in order to obtain an up-to-date picture. For the period under consideration from 01.01.2010 to 31.12.2021, a price bubble was not confirmed on the overall German residential property market.