Significant decline in vacant flats

The annual update of the CBRE-empirica vacancy index is available and shows a significant decline in vacancies in the housing stock in 2022. The vacancy rate nationwide is now only 2.5 %. That is around 554 thousand residential units and therefore 53 thousand fewer vacant flats than in 2021. This is the biggest decline in a single year since the time series began over 20 years ago.

The vacancy rate in 2022 was influenced by the immigration of over one million people from Ukraine, which was more evenly distributed across the federal state than previous immigration from abroad. This has led to a further shortage on the housing market. As a result, vacancy rates fell across the country in 2022, both in rural and urban areas and also in regions that had recorded a decline in population in previous years. The situation is expected to worsen in the period up to 2025, as the number of completed flats will collapse with a time lag in relation to the interest rate and cost shock.

The CBRE-empirica vacancy index is the only source of information that provides regional data on market-active vacancies in multi-storey apartments. The current figures are based on CBRE’s  portfolio management data from (about 915,000 residential units as of December 31, 2022) as well as extensive analyses and estimates based on the empirica regional database  and the data from the Federal Statistical Office. Customers of empirica regio can query the current vacancy data via our database access. Further ordering options and information on the methodology can be found on the website of empirica  (in German).