Despite the challenges of recent years, the latest LBS|empirica Affordability Barometer 2026 shows an overall stable development in financing opportunities for home ownership: Around 39 per cent of young tenant households are generally able to bear the ongoing financing costs. As reported by Handelsblatt and haufe.de last week, the main hurdle is therefore not income, but rather a lack of equity.
This assessment is confirmed by the detailed results of the study. While the so-called income threshold – i.e. the ability to service the monthly loan burden – can be met by a large share of households, the equity threshold represents a significantly greater obstacle. Nationwide, only around 5.7 per cent of tenant households aged 30 to 44 years are able to accumulate sufficient equity for the purchase of residential property.
Background: The required equity has increased massively in recent years. As the study shows, buyers today must not only finance the transaction costs, but also around 20 percent of the purchase price with their own capital. In total, this currently results in an average capital requirement of around EUR 131,000 – more than twice as much as in 2010.
At the same time, monthly payments have increased significantly due to higher interest rates. According to the study’s calculations, the average monthly mortgage payment is now just under EUR 1,600 per month. Nevertheless, income development in recent years has been robust enough to prevent a further deterioration in affordability. Rather, the situation has recently stabilised, meaning that the income threshold has been slightly exceeded again since 2022.
The structural challenge is particularly evident in Berlin. In the capital, only around 17 percent of young tenant households are currently able to exceed the income threshold – significantly less than the national average. The situation is even more serious when it comes to equity: only around 2.1 percent of households have sufficient savings to purchase residential property.
At the same time, however, opportunities are also emerging – particularly in the areas surrounding Berlin. As other studies have already shown, demand is increasingly shifting to neighbouring regions, where barriers to entry are lower and new potential is emerging for both owner-occupiers and investors.
The current index thus highlights a key trend in the German residential real estate market: it is not ongoing financing, but access to equity that is increasingly decisive for purchasing a home. Accordingly, political measures to promote wealth accumulation and reduce transaction costs are becoming increasingly important.
“The results clearly show that it is not a lack of ability to pay, but a lack of equity that is the greatest obstacle to home ownership. Particularly in metropolitan areas such as Berlin, there is enormous untapped potential. If equity barriers can be reduced – for example by waiving real estate transfer tax for first-time buyers for owner-occupation – this could lead to a sustainable recovery of the market,” says Jacopo Mingazzini, CEO of The Grounds.
