Anyone looking for apartments, houses or offices on the real estate markets is increasingly looking at energy consumption. Sometimes it can be heard that interested parties moved away from a villa because the heating was older. Elsewhere, the question of ancillary costs is pushing forward, partly because energy prices have risen sharply in the past year. Especially when renting offices, companies pay attention to the costs and how resource-saving buildings can improve their carbon footprint. This also applies to investors and landlords.
Jan Hauser
Editor in business, responsible for real estate.
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The extent to which the building's energy consumption affects their wallets is felt by the owners not only during operation, but also when they want to sell the property. A new evaluation shows how much the asking prices for condominiums and houses in Germany's largest cities differ according to the energy classes. For example, these prices for residential real estate fell by an average of 10 to 12 percent in Munich, Frankfurt and Stuttgart in energy classes E to H with higher consumption values in the first three months of the year compared to the same period last year. In energy classes A to D with lower consumption values, on the other hand, there was a minus of 8 to about 9 percent.
Restraint in the real estate market
This widens the price gap between better-renovated houses and buildings with higher energy requirements. In absolute terms, this sometimes amounts to a few hundred euros per square metre. In Frankfurt, therefore, there is already an average difference of about 1150 euros per square meter.
Due to the rise in interest rates, financing costs have recently risen significantly. Reluctance is often observed in the real estate market. Transactions have decreased. If you don't necessarily have to sell, it's better to wait and see if prices rise again. In contrast to previous years, rising real estate prices in the cities are hardly to be expected across the board.
Daniel Ritter, managing partner of the broker network Von Poll Immobilien, nevertheless advises sellers to sell now with a realistic discount. Prospective buyers are generally well prepared and seek advice from experts such as energy consultants. "The price is almost always talked about and negotiated at the moment," he says. "Price reductions of 5 percent to 10 percent on average have become normal in many places."
The broker network has used the average asking prices of the Geomap portal to analyse how the purchase prices are presented according to energy classes for condominiums as well as detached and semi-detached houses. The evaluation, which is available to the F.A.Z. in advance, refers to the eight largest cities in Germany: Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. According to the study, the difference between the energy classes in Leipzig is most significant: properties with lower consumption fall by 2.5 percent, while the prices of apartments and houses with higher energy consumption fall by almost 10 percent.
An exception to these data is the capital Berlin, where real estate prices rose on average. For energy classes with higher consumption, it is an increase of 0.7 percent, and for those with lower consumption, it is 2.2 percent. Here, too, there is a difference.
This is what an energy certificate looks like
The energy class a building receives depends on the final energy it consumes. Christian Handwerk from the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Advice Centre adds that it does not matter how the kilowatt hours are produced. It is important to bring the building envelope to a good level of insulation and to design the roof, walls and windows efficiently. This reduces the need for heating. "In the future, the long-lasting building envelope will help with the consumption of the building, the installation of the most efficient variants will be possible when replacing broken heating systems, and the value of the property will increase with a good shell," says the consultant for energy-efficient construction and building physics.