Vacancy rate in Düsseldorf is declining, but still above 1%
Düsseldorf has seen its population rise only 6%, or 36,500, since 2009. The
number of households did not increase much either. Other demand drivers,
such as employment growth, lagged behind the average of other metropolitan
areas, too; employment was up 13% in Düsseldorf between 2009 and 2017,
compared to an average of 20% for all metropolitan areas. At 7.1%, the
unemployment rate is almost one percentage point above the average for all
metropolitan areas.
Düsseldorf is also doing worse in terms of youth
unemployment (5.2%) and unemployment among foreigners (16%; compared to
averages of 5.0% and 13.8%, respectively). As the environment, while
favourable, is obviously less dynamic, the vacancy rate is somewhat higher than
in other metropolitan areas, at 1.4% (JLL, as of June 2017). However, it is
clearly lower than in former years, when it was sometimes above 3%. As this
relatively high and declining vacancy rate suggests, construction activity used to
be quite sluggish, but appears to have accelerated in the last few years. In 2016
(latest available figures), the ratio between building permits and existing
residential units rose to 1.4%, up from considerably below 1%.
EU Forecast
euf:ba.18.j:166/nws-01