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The state in the federal trend: Rising prices in and near the cities

With an area of just under 48,000 square kilometers, Germany's second-largest state after Bavaria presents itself in its anthem as "storm-proof and earthy". Nearly 7.8 million inhabitants live and work on the North Sea coast between Ostfriesland, Emsland and Cuxland, which is popular with tourists, in the Elbe-Weser triangle, in the Lüneburg Heath, in the Harz Mountains, in the Weserbergland, in the Wendland and, of course, in and around the state capital of Hanover with its good 514,000 inhabitants. The largest cities in Lower Saxony, each with its own real estate market, include Braunschweig, Wolfsburg, Salzgitter, Oldenburg, Wilhelmshaven, Osnabrück, Delmenhorst, Emden and Göttingen. In addition, Lower Saxony also borders the two metropolitan areas and city states of Bremen/Bremerhaven and Hamburg, whose proximity is also quite noticeable locally in higher prices for real estate of all kinds. The southeast of the state, with its automotive, supplier and steel industries, as well as the mechanical and plant engineering sectors, is the economic engine of the region, and prices for houses, rental apartments and condominiums are correspondingly higher there, as these are in high demand from workers moving in. Here, too, Hannover leads the ranking of regional cities, with average price increases for detached single-family homes as well as mid-terrace, end-of-terrace and semi-detached homes amounting to around 15 percent on the Leine between 2012 and 2013. In the above-mentioned cities, as in almost all other major cities in Lower Saxony with populations of 100,000 or more, prices rose by 5 to 10 percent over the same period.

Waterfront location on the North Sea as a good investment in Lower Saxony

Likewise partly substantial price increases took place in the last years with real estates in water situation in the coastal sections of Lower Saxony already mentioned at the beginning. The houses and dwellings on the East Frisian islands of Borkum, Juist, Norderney, Baltrum, Langeoog, Spiekeroog and Wangerooge, which are primarily used as vacation accommodation, are particularly sought-after and therefore also quite expensive; the top prices for new buildings there range from 5,000 to over 16,000 euros/m². But also almost directly at the sea one finds still some bargain, so with something luck for example in the joint municipality Esens together with its nationally recognized seaside resort Bensersiel, where with square meter prices between approx. 1,050 and 1,200 euro for dwellings and houses favorable conditions for the acquisition prevail. Further east, at the entrance to the Jadebusen, the municipality of Wangerland with its well-known seaside resort of Schilling also offers acceptable prices between about 1,050 and 1,350/m². However, it is even cheaper to buy your own home in the inland areas of East Frisia, where there are many offers in the districts of Aurich and Leer due to the slight decrease in population. However, it is somewhat more expensive in the Emsland region to the south, and the three districts of Ammerland, Cloppenburg and Vechta further west have also tended to increase in price in recent years. For years, the Upper Harz has offered good opportunities for long-term investment. Not far from the economic metropolises of southern Lower Saxony, but somewhat isolated by its low mountain range location, real estate prices in towns such as Andreasberg, Altenau, Clausthal, Zellerfeld, Lautenthal, Wildemann and Grund have fallen sharply in the majority of cases, and the districts of Goslar and Osterode am Harz also offer a wide choicein some cases.

Where there is a lot of work, housing quickly becomes more expensive, but niches are also appealing

A rough rule of thumb for estimating current and future real estate prices in Lower Saxony is the distance of the properties to the North Sea coast, which is interesting for tourism, on the one hand, and to the economic centers of the state on the other. In addition to the regional leader Hannover and the neighboring cities of Braunschweig, Wolfsburg and Salzgitter, as well as the traditional university city of Göttingen, major and medium-sized centers such as the seaport city of Emden in East Frisia and, above all, Oldenburg, which has been a thriving center of information technology for years, have also seen a continuous upward trend in their residential property prices. In view of the good economic situation in the entire Weser-Ems region with its five independent cities of Delmenhorst, Emden, Oldenburg, Osnabrück and Wilhelmshaven and the twelve districts of Ammerland, Aurich, Cloppenburg, Emsland, Friesland, Grafschaft Bentheim, Leer, Oldenburg, Osnabrück, Vechta, Wesermarsch and Wittmund, market experts also expect property prices there to rise slowly but steadily in the coming years. Most observers also consider the opportunities for increasing the value of existing properties in the well-known recreational area of Lüneburger Heide in the district of Harburg south of Hamburg to be very promising. The proximity to the economically strong Hanseatic city makes the area increasingly attractive for commuters and young families. Even in rather structurally weak regions of Lower Saxony that are still characterized exclusively by agriculture on a large scale, such as the Wendland region in the Lüchow-Dannenberg district in the far east on the border with Saxony-Anhalt, the decline in real estate prices that has been going on for years now seems to have come to a halt. With currently still very good prices between 513 euros and 1,068 euros for the square meter of living space in one- or two-family houses, long-term investors can definitely make worthwhile investments there in the future with a little prudence and planning.

Short facts Real estate market in Lower Saxony:

- Hanover exhibits for years the highest increases in value
- in all other large cities of Lower Saxony the real estate prices constantly rise
- particularly the strongly industrialized southeast is strongly in demand by Zuzüglern
- maximum prices on the Ostfriesischen islands, on the coast it is more favorable
- The Harz mountains offer favorable opportunities in nature, but are not "out of the world"
- Most of the major and medium-sized centers are developing at an above-average rate
- Good future forecasts for the Weser-Ems region in the west of the state
- The Wendland region in the far east is waking up from its "Sleeping Beauty" slumber