Demand for Holiday Properties Increases by 54 % During the Corona Crisis – Demand at All-Time High

In this crisis year 2020, more people are hunting on google for vacation homes for sale than ever before. Many prospective buyers are also following through on their research: compared to last year, 21.15% more of Germans own a vacation property. This emerges from a new infographic from „Handelskontor“. 

1.04 million German citizens owned a holiday home or a apartment last year, but since then this has risen to 1.26 million. As the infographic shows, the number of privately rented holiday homes has declined over the same period. This means that more and more people are turning to owner-occupied properties.

The Google trend score, an indicator of relative search volume, for the search terms “buy holiday home“ reached the maximum value of one hundred in August, 54% higher than this time last year.

Run on Concrete Gold and Property Shares During Corona Crisis

Meanwhile, data show that house prices have continued to rise throughout the pandemic. In the 2nd quarter, the „Empirica“ price index for real estate stood at 174 points in Germany. This compares to 147 in the same quarter of the previous year, an increase of 18.4%.

The same goes for real estate shares. While the industry-spanning DAX benchmark index is currently 0.2% below where it was a year ago, the market value of Deutsche Wohnen has risen by up to 22.2%. A similar picture emerges with respect to the real estate group Vonovia, whose market capitalisation, also included in the DAX, has risen by 20.8%. Concrete gold has not only proved resilient in a crisis, but has even proved to be extremely profitable.