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.

The market-active vacancy rate - i.e. multi-storey properties that can be let immediately or activated in the medium term - was 2.5% or around 554,000 units at the end of 2022. This represents a decrease of around 53,000 units compared to the previous year 2021 (around 607,000 units). This is the largest decline in the 22-year history of the vacancy index. For the first time, there was no year-on-year increase in any of the 400 districts.

CBRE-empirica-vacancy index

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.

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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:

Dr. Reiner Braun (2023): CBRE-empirica-Vacancy Index 2023  (external download in German only).



vacancy
Significant decline in vacant flats

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.
Housing vacancies between urban and rural areas

Housing vacancies between urban and rural areas

In the housing policy debate around new housing, immigration, shortage of housing and urban sprawl, the issue of vacancy rarely plays a role. The vacancy rate offers important insight into the state of housing shortage in individual regions. However, a generalised view of the data alone does not help in the analysis of vacancy figures. The mutual interactions are far too complex, for example, when it comes to the regionally very different imbalance between supply and demand or migration movements from the A and B cities to more rural areas.
CBRE-empirica-Vacancy-Index 2022

CBRE-empirica-Vacancy-Index 2022

According to the CBRE-empirica Vacancy Index, the market-active vacancy rate - i.e. flats that can be let immediately or activated in the medium term - was 2.8 percent or around 607,000 units at the end of 2021. This means that the vacancy rate has reduced by about 4 thousand units compared to the previous year.