Real estate prices in Cologne: Family has been looking for affordable housing for years

When a friend told her a few years ago that she had bought an apartment in Cologne for 700,000 euros, Anna Schulte* thought: "She's crazy, so much money!" Then she and her family looked for a larger apartment to buy in the same city. At least four rooms, close to the previous rental apartment - "and ideally for a mid-six-figure amount," the lawyer remembers. She, her husband and her children searched for a total of five years (first there was one, later the second was added). She quickly realized: It wasn't her friend who was crazy, it was the prices.