Fahrländer Partner Raumentwicklung (FPRE) conducts a semi-annual survey of real estate experts' assessments regarding the development of the German residential and office property markets. The latest spring survey 2026 reveals a clear correction in market expectations, particularly compared to the results of the previous survey from autumn 2025. Expectations are represented in price indices on a scale from -200 to +200, where a value of 0 indicates stability and values around +/-100 signify a high degree of consensus on rising or falling prices, respectively.
Residential property market: Divided expectations for owner-occupied housing, stable rents
For detached houses and owner-occupied flats, the price expectation index nationwide has fallen to -14.8 points, down from 38.8 points in autumn 2025. This marks a noticeable decline in optimistic market sentiment. A significant proportion of 42.9 percent of the experts surveyed anticipate stable prices, while 36.0 percent expect prices to fall. Only 21.1 percent foresee price increases. This shift is remarkable, as in autumn 2025, approximately 46 percent still predicted rising prices. The outlook for detached houses, with an index of -20.0 points (autumn 2025: 34.8 points), is slightly more negative than for owner-occupied flats, which stand at -11.9 points (autumn 2025: 41.2 points).
At the regional level, differentiated results are evident. Positive index values for owner-occupied flats are recorded in Bavaria (24.0 points), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (24.2 points), and Brandenburg (27.4 points). In contrast, the prospects in Berlin (-35.3 points) and Schleswig-Holstein (-28.9 points) are assessed as particularly negative. Sentiment for multi-family houses has also dampened; the price expectation index dropped from 28.8 points to -27.3 points. Here, 39.9 percent of respondents expect falling transaction prices, while 43.3 percent anticipate stability and only 16.9 percent predict rising prices.
The residential rental segment continues to present a robust picture. Although the index fell from 93.7 to 69.1 points, it remains clearly in positive territory. 70.0 percent of experts expect rising rents, 26.7 percent stable rents, and only 3.3 percent anticipate a decline.
Office properties: Continued negative trend and dampened sentiment even for rents
In the office segment, the negative trend continues unabated and has recently accelerated. The price expectation index for transaction prices deteriorated from -20.2 points in autumn 2025 to -65.2 points now. This signals a return to a pessimistic market zone, after a recovery had previously been indicated. Sentiment for office rents has also dampened, with an index of -43.0 points, compared to -24.7 points in autumn 2025. Nearly half of the survey participants (47.3 percent) forecast falling or sharply falling office rents in the coming twelve months, while 42.2 percent expect stable rents and only 10.5 percent anticipate rent increases in this segment.
Magnus Danneck, CEO Germany at FPRE, evaluates the results: "The spring survey 2026 marks a significant sentiment correction compared to autumn 2025. Owner-occupied flats, detached and multi-family houses have slipped back into negative territory after a short recovery phase — only residential rents defy the trend and continue to show mostly rising expectations. In the office segment, the hoped-for stabilisation has suffered a setback; pessimism clearly predominates here again."
