The high prices are having an impact: an exclusive analysis shows strong differences in the marketing time of residential advertisements. In which cities it is quickest for sellers.
In Germany, real estate advertisements stay online for very different lengths of time, ranging from around three to almost nine weeks.
Hausgold's analysis shows that sales in Düsseldorf take an average of 6.2 weeks, whereas in Munich they only take five weeks.
Longer offering times occur particularly in parts of Rhineland-Palatinate, Thuringia and Brandenburg, while Bavarian regions more often have short marketing times.
Frankfurt. Anyone who wants to sell their property not only needs a good feeling about the price, but also patience. Because in Germany, houses and apartments do not find buyers quickly everywhere. While real estate advertisements disappear after a short time in some regions, in other places they remain available for almost nine weeks.
This is shown by an evaluation by the real estate agent Hausgold, which is available exclusively to Handelsblatt. The study is based on several hundred thousand real estate offers from print media and online portals. The study examined how long condominiums, single-family homes and semi-detached houses would be offered on average in the first five months of 2026.
The differences are significant: properties in the slowest markets take almost three times as long to sell as in the fastest ones.
What is particularly interesting is the look at the seven largest German cities. Even in the economically strong “top 7” metropolises – Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich – with their often high real estate prices, marketing times differ significantly.
According to the study, sellers in Düsseldorf have to be patient the longest. Residential properties there remain advertised for an average of 6.2 weeks. Berlin follows closely behind with 6.1 weeks. In Hamburg, too, it takes a comparatively long time, on average 5.9 weeks, for an offer to disappear from the market again.
Things move particularly quickly in Munich
In Cologne and Frankfurt am Main, the average advertisement duration is 5.8 weeks each. However, things are much faster in Munich. In the Bavarian capital, residential properties are only online for five weeks on average. This puts Munich ahead of Düsseldorf by a good eight days.
“The real estate market is much more selective today than it was a few years ago,” says Hausgold boss Sebastian Wagner. Buyers took a closer look, would compare offers and take possible renovation costs into account. “Our data also shows that long supply times are not just a problem in big cities or rural areas,” emphasizes the expert.
Where patience is particularly required
The differences at the level of around 400 German districts and independent cities are even greater. According to the figures from the agent, Zweibrücken in Rhineland-Palatinate holds the negative record. In the independent city, properties stay online for an average of 8.8 weeks.
Cottbus in Brandenburg follows in second place with 8.5 weeks. In the Thuringian district of Hildburghausen it is 8.4 weeks. Eisenach also has comparatively long marketing times with eight weeks, as well as Suhl and the districts of Kaiserslautern and Südwestpfalz with 7.8 weeks each.
In these circles, sellers rarely wait
At the other end of the ranking is the Neumarkt district in Upper Palatinate. Real estate offers there only stay online for an average of 3.1 weeks - the lowest value in the entire evaluation. The Upper Franconian city of Hof follows with 3.7 weeks and Frankenthal in Rhineland-Palatinate with 3.8 weeks. Bamberg and the Regen district are also among the regions with particularly short advertising periods, each lasting four weeks.
Important to know: The marketing duration reported by Hausgold only measures how long an advertisement remains published. It is not clear from the data whether the property was actually sold, at what price the deal was concluded, or whether the provider simply withdrew its advertisement.
However, the results show that longer offer times are particularly evident in parts of Rhineland-Palatinate, Thuringia and Brandenburg. At 7.7 weeks, Chemnitz in Saxony is also one of the markets in which sellers have to wait a comparatively long time for their advertisement to be completed.
Bavaria very present with a short marketing time
What is striking is the strong presence of Bavarian cities and districts among the fastest real estate markets. In addition to Neumarkt, Hof, Bamberg and Regen, Schweinfurt, Ingolstadt, Kempten and Kaufbeuren are also at the bottom of the rankings.
The rent index that has just been presented by the Kiel World Economic Institute (IfW) this week also found a longer marketing period in the large metropolises on the rental market. “New apartments in big cities are among the most expensive offers on the rental market,” said Jonas Zdrzalek, real estate expert at the IfW. At these prices, only a smaller group of households would be eligible as tenants, and that could prolong the marketing process.
However, Hausgold's ranking also shows that short offer times are by no means limited to economically strong or particularly expensive regions. Mansfeld-Südharz and the Kyffhäuserkreis, two regions in Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, are also among the fastest markets. Across all area entries recorded in the district evaluation, the average offer duration is calculated at around 5.9 weeks.
