CBRE-empirica-Vacancy Index

The CBRE-empirica vacancy index is a key indicator of the housing market situation and provides a regionalised analysis of residential vacancies in Germany. With its help, the dynamics of the housing market can be better understood.

Information on the 2022 census and the 2025 revision

The 2022 census has collected new vacancy figures. These have been published in stages since the end of June. Unlike the last census from 2011, this time the duration and reasons for the vacancy were recorded for the first time. This also includes a ‘market-active census vacancy’ category (specifically: ‘available for occupation within 3 months’). Fortunately, the nationwide rates for market-active vacancies of multi-storey flats from the census (2.3% for MFH) and the CBRE-empirica vacancy index (2.5%) differ only marginally. However, in individual districts there are also larger deviations both upwards and downwards.

Now, the market-active census vacancy rate and the CBRE-empirica vacancy rate index are not readily comparable. On the one hand, the census was conducted in May 2022, before the large wave of immigration from Ukraine arrived. This immigration, in turn, is already included in the CBRE-empirica vacancy index for 2022 (as at the end of the year). In addition, there are differing definitions of ‘market-active’ (‘within 3 months…’ in the census vs. ‘available for occupancy within 6 months’ in ours) and a blurred classification of ‘market-active’ in the census (as an alternative to ‘within 3 months…’, other reasons such as ‘future owner-occupation’ could also be given in the census, but this could also be partially included under market-active).

Nevertheless, we have decided to revise our CBRE-empirica vacancy index using the census data. This makes sense in order to ensure that our future updates are comparable with the official data. However, this revision cannot be carried out at short notice. As we want to deliver high data quality, this requires not only extensive checking and calculation work, but also additional input from official data. However, this input is not yet fully available. For example, the official, census-corrected updates of population figures, which form the basis for empirica regio’s model calculations on the development of private households, are still missing. We will therefore probably not be able to present revised data for the CBRE-empirica vacancy index for 2023 until March 2025. However, the revision will then also be carried out for a time series of previous years. In future, we will also calculate a market-active vacancy rate for single/two-family homes.

For these reasons, we will not be publishing a new report on the CBRE-empirica vacancy index in December, but only in March. If you are still interested in the preliminary data, you can purchase the unrevised data for 2023 and the years before and receive the revised data free of charge as soon as it is available.

Purchase Options

Are you interested in the CBRE-empirica vacancy index? You can obtain the data at district level from empirica regio as access to the empirica regional database (Market Studio  and RESTful API ). In addition to access to the vacancy index, you benefit from a wide range of other data. You also get immediate access to the updated index as soon as it is published.

If you are interested in a consultation appointment or an individual offer to obtain the CBRE-empirica vacancy index, please contact us by e-mail at info@empirica-regio.de  or under +49 (0) 228 914 89 214.

Data Source and Methodology

The CBRE-empirica vacancy index is the only data source with information on market-active vacancies in multi-storey flats in Germany. The current figures are based on management data from the property consultancy CBRE (around 915,000 residential units as at 31 December 2022) as well as extensive analyses and estimates based on the empirica regional database and the Federal Statistical Office. The resulting vacancy rates are extrapolated from the total stock of all multi-storey flats.

The market-active vacancy rate does not include ‘ruins’ or dysfunctional vacancies. The market-active vacancy rate includes vacant flats that are immediately available and vacant flats that are not currently available for letting due to defects but could be activated in the medium term (<6 months). Figures for the total vacancy rate based on updated data from the last census are therefore higher. According to this, the total vacancy rate at the end of 2021 totalled 1.18 million flats and a further 0.55 million flats in owner-occupied homes. This means that a good five out of ten vacant multi-storey flats are currently not immediately available and therefore not an active market vacancy.

Detailed results and further information on the methodology can be downloaded from the empirica ag website. The updated report will be published in March 2025.