How Much Cash Buys a 70 m² Apartment? 25 German Cities Ranked (2026)
The all-in price of the same 70 m² apartment varies 3.8x across Germany's 25 largest housing markets. Including transfer tax and notary fees, a buyer needs about €157,700 in Duisburg but €605,600 in Munich. Six major cities still come in under €200,000 all-in, and with 80% bank financing the cheapest entry ticket drops to about €41,400 of own cash.
The ranking: total cash for a 70 m² apartment, all 25 cities (2026)
| # | City | €/m² | Apartment (70 m²) | Transfer tax | Tax + notary* | Total all-in | Cash at 80% LTV** |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Duisburg | €2,076 | €145,300 | 6.5% | €12,400 | €157,700 | €41,400 |
| 2 | Wuppertal | €2,250 | €157,500 | 6.5% | €13,400 | €170,900 | €44,900 |
| 3 | Mönchengladbach | €2,318 | €162,300 | 6.5% | €13,800 | €176,100 | €46,200 |
| 4 | Bochum | €2,511 | €175,800 | 6.5% | €14,900 | €190,700 | €50,100 |
| 5 | Dortmund | €2,605 | €182,400 | 6.5% | €15,500 | €197,800 | €52,000 |
| 6 | Leipzig | €2,636 | €184,500 | 5.5% | €13,800 | €198,400 | €50,700 |
| 7 | Essen | €2,776 | €194,300 | 6.5% | €16,500 | €210,800 | €55,400 |
| 8 | Bielefeld | €2,776 | €194,300 | 6.5% | €16,500 | €210,800 | €55,400 |
| 9 | Bremen | €2,934 | €205,400 | 5.5% | €15,400 | €220,800 | €56,500 |
| 10 | Dresden | €2,971 | €208,000 | 5.5% | €15,600 | €223,600 | €57,200 |
| 11 | Hanover | €3,564 | €249,500 | 5.0% | €17,500 | €266,900 | €67,400 |
| 12 | Nuremberg | €3,680 | €257,600 | 3.5% | €14,200 | €271,800 | €65,700 |
| 13 | Mannheim | €3,930 | €275,100 | 5.0% | €19,300 | €294,400 | €74,300 |
| 14 | Münster | €4,000 | €280,000 | 6.5% | €23,800 | €303,800 | €79,800 |
| 15 | Karlsruhe | €4,206 | €294,400 | 5.0% | €20,600 | €315,000 | €79,500 |
| 16 | Stuttgart | €4,310 | €301,700 | 5.0% | €21,100 | €322,800 | €81,500 |
| 17 | Wiesbaden | €4,296 | €300,700 | 6.0% | €24,100 | €324,800 | €84,200 |
| 18 | Cologne | €4,277 | €299,400 | 6.5% | €25,400 | €324,800 | €85,300 |
| 19 | Augsburg | €4,435 | €310,500 | 3.5% | €17,100 | €327,500 | €79,200 |
| 20 | Düsseldorf | €4,435 | €310,500 | 6.5% | €26,400 | €336,800 | €88,500 |
| 21 | Bonn | €4,458 | €312,100 | 6.5% | €26,500 | €338,600 | €88,900 |
| 22 | Berlin | €5,320 | €372,400 | 6.0% | €29,800 | €402,200 | €104,300 |
| 23 | Frankfurt am Main | €5,680 | €397,600 | 6.0% | €31,800 | €429,400 | €111,300 |
| 24 | Hamburg | €6,273 | €439,100 | 5.5% | €32,900 | €472,000 | €120,800 |
| 25 | Munich | €8,200 | €574,000 | 3.5% | €31,600 | €605,600 | €146,400 |
*State transfer tax (Grunderwerbsteuer) plus notary and land registry at the statutory approx. 2.0% (GNotKG). Agent commissions excluded: they vary by transaction and are frequently zero on developer projects. **Own cash with an 80% loan-to-value mortgage: 20% down payment plus purchase costs, which German banks do not finance. City prices: average resale €/m², H1 2026.
Key findings
Duisburg is Germany's cheapest big-city entry point in 2026: at €2,076/m², a 70 m² apartment costs about €145,300, plus €12,400 in transfer tax and notary fees, for roughly €157,700 all-in. At the other end, Munich (€8,200/m²) requires about €605,600: enough to buy 3.8 average Duisburg apartments, with cash to spare.
Six cities clear the €200,000 all-in bar: Duisburg, Wuppertal, Mönchengladbach, Bochum, Dortmund and Leipzig. Five are in the Ruhr region or Rhineland, one in Saxony. All six sit in the 4.0-4.9% gross yield band, well above the big-seven average.
Transfer tax reshuffles the ranking in non-obvious ways. Bavaria's 3.5% rate means a buyer in Nuremberg pays about €9,000 in transfer tax on a €257,600 apartment: less tax than in Duisburg, where the apartment itself costs €145,300 but Nordrhein-Westfalen charges 6.5%. On identical purchase prices, the state choice moves five figures.
None of the purchase costs are financeable. German banks lend against the property value only, so transfer tax and notary fees always come from equity. With a standard 80% loan-to-value mortgage, the own-cash requirement ranges from about €41,400 in Duisburg to €146,400 in Munich. Run your own numbers in the Purchase Cost Calculator and the Mortgage Calculator, or dive into the full city reports.
Methodology and sources
Reference unit: 70 m² apartment at the average resale price per m² for each city, H1 2026, from notarised transaction data and leading market reports (full source list per city in the respective LDP city report). Purchase costs: state transfer tax (Grunderwerbsteuer) per GrEStG as of August 2026, plus notary and land registry at the statutory approx. 2.0% (GNotKG). Agent commissions are excluded: they vary by transaction and are frequently zero on developer projects. Totals rounded to the nearest €100. Background on all cost components in the glossary entry on Kaufnebenkosten.
Citation & press use
Figures may be quoted freely with attribution to "How Much Cash Buys a 70 m² Apartment? 25 German Cities Ranked (2026), LDP Group" and a link to this page. Press enquiries: info@ldp.group.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest major German city to buy an apartment in 2026?
Duisburg, at about €157,700 all-in for an average 70 m² resale apartment, including transfer tax and notary fees. Wuppertal and Mönchengladbach follow, both under €180,000.
How much cash do I need if the bank finances 80%?
The 20% down payment plus all purchase costs, which German banks do not finance. That means roughly €41,400 of own cash in Duisburg and about €146,400 in Munich for the same 70 m² reference apartment.
Why is the gap between cities so large?
Prices per m² range from €2,076 in Duisburg to €8,200 in Munich, a 3.9x spread, and state transfer tax adds between 3.5% (Bavaria) and 6.5% (e.g. Nordrhein-Westfalen) on top. Combined, the identical apartment costs 3.8 times more all-in in the most expensive market.
Are agent commissions included in these figures?
No. Buyer-side commissions vary by transaction, are capped at 50% of the total by law since 2020, and are frequently zero on new-build and developer projects. The ranking counts only the unavoidable costs: transfer tax, notary and land registry.