In September 2019 we took a closer look at the current rental offers in Bonn. 600 offers in the two largest real estate portals were evaluated. Actually, the offer should be much larger, namely about 1.000 apartments. But about 45% of the offers can not be found in the normal housing sections, but rather hidden as furnished apartments under "temporary living". After a sample 2018 "only" 38% of the rental offer were furnished and offered on time, it is already 7% more. It does not take a lot of imagination to predict that next year the ratio tilts, as in Cologne with 58% and Dusseldorf with 60% share of time accommodation.

The adventurous rental prices for time living are shown in the following graphic.

As far as the manageable supply of freely available apartments (excluding “temporary living”) is concerned, there are interesting details: Bonn residents have around 5 m² less living space available than the national average. This is mainly due to the high proportion of 1-person households, due to the high number of students.

As for the average size in relation to the number of rooms, the following picture shows.

Apartments with more than 3,5 rooms are with 13% rare. This mainly affects large families.

A look at the m² prices per room number shows a well-known picture. The smaller the apartment, the higher the m² price.

Of course, the m² prices also differ according to the locations.

After the introduction of the ordering principle in the year 2015 more and more landlords tried to rent their apartments without brokers. This trend is slowly reversing, from 32% in 2016 to 37% currently. In the case of home leases, the share of agents brokered by brokers increased from 51% in 2016 to 68% this year.

Sources: Internal evaluation 9 / 2019 (Immobilienscout24 / Immowelt), Federal Statistical Office 2019 (statista)

Bernd Viebach