Despite slightly lower prices, purchasing a home remains largely unaffordable for many first-time buyers in Germany. This is the main conclusion drawn from a study on the regional potential for first-time buyers, conducted by the analysis institute Empirica and the state savings banks for housing, as reported by the “Handelsblatt”.
According to the institute’s “Affordability Barometer” the primary obstacle to buying property is insufficient personal capital. In 2025, only about 5.7 percent of renter households with members aged 30 to 44 could overcome this hurdle independently. Fifteen years ago, this figure was nearly ten percent.
The restrictions concerning income are considerably less limiting. Approximately 39 percent of households can afford the ongoing financing payments. Therefore, the critical barrier is not the monthly burden, but the high initial hurdle posed by purchase ancillary costs and the required personal capital, which currently averages around €131,000.
Axel Guthmann, the association director for the state savings banks for housing, stated that savings have always been the limiting factor in accumulating homeownership capital, but the situation has deteriorated noticeably over the past decade. He emphasized that proper political measures are now needed to reverse this trend.