Introduction
The global housing market crisis that started in 2007 largely left Germany untouched, and
that also holds for the housing market boom that preceded it. Germany’s housing market follows its own path: house prices in Europe’s largest economy seem to move counter- cyclical to those of its neighbors. They have been stalling and gradually falling for most of the last decade and a half. In this respect, Germany’s role of European outlier seems to match closely with that of Japan’s role as the Asian outlier.
Germany’s distinct dynamic is caused by a set of institutional issues and by Germany’s specific housing market fundamentals. In addition, the unique historic event of Germany’s unification in 1990 induced a property boom in the early 1990s followed by a long wane of home values ever since. This cycle is probably one of the least documented housing booms and busts in the literature, partly for lack of accurate data concerning