Infographic – At a Glance: Germany
Berlin is the big boy in Germany´s property market, according to the latest At A Glance infographic from TheMoveChannel.com. The infographic, based on activity on the property portal over the last 12 months, shows that over half of buyers looking for property in Germany head straight to the capital city state.
Berlin dominated demand from investors, taking over 55.38 per cent of enquiries for German real estate on the site between July 2011 and June 2012. Saxony was the second most popular region, accounting for 21.09 per cent of enquiries.
Together, the two areas outpaced the rest of the country, accounting for over three-quarters of buyer enquiries. Indeed, the closest contender was third-place Bremen, which only took 5.96 per cent of enquiries in the last year; not even one-tenth of Berlin´s total.
The capital also leads the way for location searches on the site, with 41.19 per cent of buyers beginning their hunt by looking for real estate in Berlin. Given the popularity of Saxony property, it is no surprise that the region´s two biggest cities, Leipzig and Dresden, are in the top 10 searched-for locations too. Indeed, Leipzig accounted for 9.62 per cent of searches, the second highest after Berlin. Together, these top two locations were the target of over half of German-based searches on the site.
The At a Glance series also analyses property buyers´ search behaviour on Google over the last 12 months. The period between June and August is when buyer activity visibly peaks, but the infographic reveals a striking preference for "villas for sale in Germany" and "apartments for sale in Germany"; a rare instance of when houses are the not the most popular type of property in a European country.
Indeed, "houses for sale in Germany" featured in almost no Google searches at all over the last year, with investors more keen to locate "holiday homes" instead. Nonetheless, apartments and villas proved far more popular, consistently generating over twice as many enquiries as holiday homes.
Editor Ivan Radford comments: "Like many of the traditional lifestyle destinations, Germany´s property market appears driven by a core group of regions. This gives the impression of a vacation-driven market, something supported by the number of Google searches for holiday homes. With the eurozone crisis spreading uncertainty through more familiar countries, are people turning to Germany´s stable economy for their second homes? Or are they looking for a real estate investment with a more reliable return? The number of tourist hotspots, such as Frankfurt and Stuttgart, in the top 10 searched-for cities could suggest either, but it´s easy to see that Berlin´s strong property market is beneficial for both types of buyers.
"It´s no surprise, then, to see the capital far out in front across the chart. Indeed, the high number of enquiries within the city state suggests that investors are not only looking specifically for property in Berlin – but more importantly, that they´re finding what they´re looking for."
Click here to see the full infographic.
Notes to Editors
Founded in 1999, TheMoveChannel.com is the leading independent website for international property, with than 400,000 listings in over 100 countries around the world, marketed on behalf of agents, developers and private owners.
The website address is http://www.themovechannel.com and the office address is 24 Jack´s Place, Corbet Place, Spitalfields, London, E1 6NN.
Contact Dan Johnson on 0207 952 7650 for further information.