Pursuits
German Home Prices Rose Most in Decade on Cheap Finance
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German home prices rose by the most in at least 10 years in 2013 as low interest rates made it cheaper to finance purchases and prompted investors to switch from bond markets to real estate. The gains slowed in the fourth quarter.
Prices for houses, apartments and residential buildings climbed 4 percent in 2013 from a year earlier, according to an index published today by the VDP Association of German Pfandbrief Banks. That’s the biggest gain since at least 2003, when VDP began compiling data. Prices rose 3.4 percent in the last three months of the year, the smallest increase in five quarters.