Such a house in the country, that would be something. Get out of the stressful and narrow city, instead live – and work – with peace and space somewhere in the country. Home office is now possible in many professions and companies, the pandemic made it possible. But the new home shouldn’t be too far out, at least every now and then you want or have to go to the city. So many city dwellers are drawn to the space between big cities and provinces, which is not affectionately known as the “bacon belt”: There is still connection by bus and train, but above all single-family houses surrounded by gardens as far as the eye can see.
One shows how great the urge to get outside is Evaluation of the real estate portal Immoscout. For this purpose, the number of inquiries for sales advertisements for single-family houses was evaluated, on the one hand in the five largest German cities Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Frankfurt and on the other hand in the surrounding districts. The result is pretty clear: around Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt, the number of inquiries grew much faster between February 2020 and June 2021 than within the cities – by up to three quarters. In the case of Berlin, the plus was even greater: around 80 percent, both in and around the city. Only in Cologne was things different, but here, too, demand in the surrounding area rose significantly.
It goes without saying that with so much demand, the supply also changes: According to Immoscout, the prices of the properties on offer are more expensive almost everywhere in the surrounding area than in the metropolises. Which of course does not mean that it has become cheaper anywhere. The analysis shows the smallest increase in the Munich suburb of eight percent. However, the area was not exactly cheap even before the pandemic.
Although the price in the advertisement does not necessarily say anything about the purchase price, the trend seems to be correct. So reported the Federal Statistical Office recently a record price for building land: the square meter cost 199 euros, the national average, mind you. In Bavaria, the square meter was even just under 350 euros. And also residential properties were according to statisticians Recently, ever faster and more expensive, most recently in the first quarter it was plus 9.4 percent compared to the previous year. One- and two-family houses in rural districts were even more expensive by 11.3 percent.
For many stressed city dwellers, this means one thing above all: the dream of a house in the country remains exactly that – a dream.