About the City:
Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in the west part of Germany. There’s a population of about 350.000, and the name Wuppertal comes from the river ”Wupper” which flows through the city. Some key characteristics of the town include the suspension railway, ‘’Schwebebahn’’, the university and the Pina Bausch dance theater. The Schwebebahn is one of the defining features in Wuppertal, due to the fact that the train is actually upside-down.
Areas in Wuppertal, Germany
As in all other countries, the market in Wuppertal is divided into rental properties and properties to buy. Wuppertal is also divided into 6 different sectors, which have a strong influence on rental and purchase prices. Barmen, Elberfeld, Vohwinkel, Cronenberg, Ronsdorf and Beyenburg all have different prices for various types of properties.
Prices for renting and buying
The cheapest area to buy and rent in Wuppertal is Elberfeld and the highest prices are found in Cronenberg. The prices generally start at 6.01 EUR/m² and goes up to 8.36 EUR/m².
For buying a house in Wuppertal, expect to pay 2.442,05 EUR/m² at the cheapest area in Langerfeld and 3259.08 EUR/m² in Elberfeld at the most expensive area.
Below you can see a comparison of Wuppertal, the state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and Germany as a whole. As you can see the flats are cheaper in Wuppertal than the average flats in the state and in the country. The houses in Wuppertal, on the other hand, are more expensive than the average of the other two comparable values.
Development of rental and purchase prices
The prices for renting and buying apartments have risen in recent years. For renting a 60m² apartment in 2012 , it would have cost just 755 EUR/m². Today, prices have risen up to roughly 1058 EUR/m². That’s a 28% increase in just 7 years.
Due to this aggressive increase in housing costs, what once could cast you 1985 EUR/m² in 2012 to buy a house, now costs 2678 EUR/m² in the same condition. Again, that’s a 26% increase since 2012.
Just looking at the price per meter squared doesn’t seem too intimidating, yet if you take into consideration that homes are much larger than a single square meter, the difference can add up. For example, if you bought an house in 2012 with 100 m², you would have paid 198,500 Euro. The same house now would cost 267,800 Euro.
According to experts, prices in Wuppertal will continue to rise and even more strongly than ever before. Some estimates see prices rising 2% each year.
Why the prices are rising and rising
An issue faced by many areas around the world with rising housing costs, is a lack of supply. This is exactly the case in Wuppertal. In short, there aren’t enough apartments and houses to meet the population. In addition, a substantial amount of the older homes are being deserted due to people not waiting to pay for renovations. They find it much more cost effective to simply move to a new home. A possible solution for this might be to give owners an allowance to buy an older home or apartment in order to fix it u and make it livable.
The second reason why the prices may be rising is that the area is getting smaller and smaller. The physical size of Wuppertal may not be shrinking, but as the population grows and more residences are being built there are less and less plots and less living space.
In addition, there is an insurgence of people investing in real estate to later rent out at an ever-increasing price. This steadily raises the price and makes it harder and harder for people to find affordable living.
Niklas Schrewe, 12.11.2019
