Background

Price indices for residential and commercial real estate are key elements of statistical reporting on real estate markets. This information is not only relevant to macroeconomic research but also provides useful information for analysing financial stability.

Price indices for a broad range of construction work are published in the official statistics. One of the uses of this information is for research on construction activity. It also opens up scope for assessing cost-related drivers of property prices.

Residential property prices

The supply of residential property price indices in Germany has burgeoned in the past few years. Price monitoring is not only based on the official house price indices (HPI) but incorporates additional indicators, primarily the price indices supplied by the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks (vdp) and the Bundesbank’s residential property price indices based on price data from bulwiengesa AG. Some of the factors setting the price indices apart include periodicity, timeliness and the type and granularity of subdivision (e.g. by region, town category, property type). Other differences include price concept and the methods of collection, processing and weighting. Data sources can also vary in terms of regional and property-specific coverage.

Commercial property prices

Owing to the lack of official figures for commercial real estate, price monitoring has to rely on data from private information services. In this connection, the annual German Property Index (GPI) for commercial property in 127 towns and cities published by bulwiengesa AG should be mentioned as one source of data. Moreover, the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks publishes quarterly price indices for office buildings, retail properties and rental housing.

Price indices for the construction sector

Quarterly indices of construction work prices show the development of prices for conventionally manufactured new buildings in selected structural and civil engineering construction styles, as well as for maintenance work undertaken on residential buildings compared with the base year. The Federal Statistical Office additionally offers a detailed subdivision into specific types of construction work. The overall index calculated by the Bundesbank completes the picture. In this index, the indices for individual building styles are weighted and aggregated based on their shares in construction industry turnover in the base year.