The Berlin market for apartment buildings – multipliers and price per m²

The simple multiplier – the X-times the annual net cold rent – is not enough to make properties comparable. Why the price per square metre is also indispensable, how the latest data from the valuation committee reflect the current market, and what sellers really need to know today.

Berlin is my home market. For almost 30 years I have accompanied the sale of apartment buildings here – predominantly Wilhelminian-era pre-war buildings (Altbauten) and mixed residential-and-commercial buildings in Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg, Neukölln, Friedrichshain, Charlottenburg, Wedding, Schöneberg and Pankow. The bulk of my mandates lie in the range of 10 to 40 residential units and a purchase-price range of 1.5 to 8 million euros. In short: the classic Berlin pre-1919 buildings are, and have always been, the focus of my work.

From Berlin I also look after properties in Leipzig, Dresden, Potsdam and Brandenburg an der Havel. But the Berlin market remains the clear focus – not only because I am based here, but because it is by far the largest of all German apartment-building markets. It is, however, also the most complex: densely regulated, increasingly divided into Milieuschutz (social-preservation) areas in the inner city, and highly politicised. Knowing these regulations in detail and assessing them expertly is, in the current market environment, the absolute prerequisite for a successful transaction.

The multiplier in flux: from boom to a new reality

For an average property with standard market rents, multipliers give an initial orientation. Let us briefly recall the historic peak: at the absolute peak phase of the market around 2022, multipliers for Berlin pre-1919 buildings rose to absurd heights. At the time, the valuation committee recorded average multipliers in the city area of 37.1 for pure residential buildings and 32.3 for mixed residential-and-commercial buildings. For four mixed-use buildings in poor condition, an average multiplier of 48 was even paid.

Since the interest-rate turnaround, which began as early as the start of 2022, and the massive regulatory interventions such as the city-wide conversion ordinance under § 250 BauGB (extended until the end of 2030), the market has corrected this overheating. The energy-efficiency condition is also becoming ever more important. Currently, the strict Building Energy Act (Gebäudeenergiegesetz, GEG) still applies to energy-efficiency refurbishment. Although a reform is pending with the new Building Modernisation Act (Gebäudemodernisierungsgesetz, GModG), which is intended to abolish the rigid 65% renewables obligation and replace it with a stepped „bio-staircase“, a recently filed urgent application before the Federal Constitutional Court is likely to delay the final decision until after the summer recess.

Let us take a closer look at how the multipliers have developed since 2022.

The slump of 2022–2024

The valuation committee's data reflect the historic turning point in the Berlin apartment-building market impressively. Within just two years, the valuation level for Wilhelminian-era pre-war buildings collapsed by 7 to 8 full annual rents on average. The statistics show particularly clearly that properties in the rest of the city outside the S-Bahn ring were calculated extremely hard in 2024, with multipliers below 23 (pure residential) and below 22 (residential-and-commercial), because investors had to price the increased risk of location, re-letting and pending energy-efficiency refurbishment strictly into the purchase price.

For 2025 and 2026 the valuation committee has not yet published any multipliers, but it has published preliminary market analyses.

The temporary consolidation of 2025

The year initially brought a noticeable revival of the transaction market at a new, healthier price level. The number of mixed residential-and-commercial buildings sold rose by 23% in the full year 2025, while pure residential buildings in the existing stock increased by 10% (all construction years). After the average purchase prices per square metre of residential and usable floor space had collapsed from the market peak in 2022 to 2024 by a drastic approx. 27% to approx. 34% depending on location, much pointed during 2025 to a bottoming-out and stabilisation of prices. I estimate the realistic multipliers for pre-1919 buildings for this period across the board in a market-conforming range of 21 to 25.

The waning momentum and segmentation of 2026

The latest quarterly figures for the start of 2026, however, show that this stabilisation did not hold across the board and that the momentum in transaction numbers is weakening again. The market segment shows itself to be sharply divided: while the mixed segment of residential-and-commercial buildings remains extremely resilient in price terms – here the per-square-metre prices in the first quarter of 2026 fell by only 2% compared with the same period of the previous year – pure residential buildings in the existing stock (without a commercial share) recorded, in the same quarterly comparison, a renewed, noticeable decline of 14% in the purchase price per square metre.

Anyone operating today within a social-preservation area under § 172 BauGB must also factor in that discounts are priced in for such properties, whereby the multipliers here can in individual cases even drop to 18 to 20 times.

Where the multiplier fails

The multiplier does, however, fail for properties with existing rents well below market level. A pre-war building with an average existing rent of €6.50/m² or even below can absolutely justify a 25-times multiplier, because there is considerable catch-up potential in the rent index (Mietspiegel) here. A comparable property next door that is already exhausted and stands at €12/m² might, at a 20-times multiplier, be overpriced – even though the mathematical formula suggests the opposite at first glance.

For this reason I consistently draw on the price per square metre of residential and usable floor space as a second, fundamental metric. The per-square-metre price makes properties comparable across different rent levels and shows what you are actually acquiring per square metre of substance.

Only from the precise interplay of the two metrics – multiplier and price per m² – in conjunction with the rent-increase potential, the refurbishment status (GEG/GModG perspective), the micro-location within the district and any special depreciation allowances for listed buildings under §§ 7i and 10f EStG (Income Tax Act) can a sound, market-appropriate price assessment be derived.

What this means for a sale

Owing to the two-year market correction from 2022 to 2024, the persistently weak economic growth amid Germany's structural change, and the uncertain global situation, investors have become noticeably more selective and cautious. As a consequence, marketing periods on the market have lengthened considerably. At present, the Berlin House of Representatives election due in autumn 2026 is additionally causing a political stalemate, as many market participants want to wait and see about possible regulatory tightening.

In this demanding environment, an uncompromisingly realistic price assessment is the decisive success factor in preventing your property from „burning up“ on the market and becoming a shelf-warmer. It is precisely this well-founded valuation that I can offer you. Through my network, which has grown over decades, I also have exclusive access to a pool of financially strong, active investors who continue to purchase in a targeted manner even in turbulent phases – discreetly, reliably and away from the public market.