LEG Housing Market Report NRW 2012

Gelsenkirchen
Falling unemployment leads to
slight rise in purchasing power
Gelsenkirchen is particularly wellknown
throughout Germany as the
home of the soccer club Schalke 04 –
but the former coal mining center has
plenty of other things to attract visitors. The
“Zoom Erlebniswelt”, for example: The former
Ruhr Zoo is now home to a wide variety
of exotic animals on a 25-hectare site, almost
40 times the size of the Veltins Arena
used by the Schalke team. Just like many
other cities, however, Gelsenkirchen will
have to come to terms with further population
decline despite these attractive leisure
options. According to forecasts, the city
will lose almost 8 percent of its just under
258,000 inhabitants and around 131,000
households between now and 2025. As
such, dismantling will certainly have to play
a part in the future development of the city.
Living space to meet new demands
Accessible apartments and intergenerational
houses already account for a certain proportion
of new construction activity. In 2010,
332 new residential units were approved –
99 more than in the previous year. At 229,
the number of completions was largely on
a level with the previous year (236). Once
known as the “city of a thousand fires”,
Gelsenkirchen is still grappling with the economic
consequences of structural change.
The city continues to have the highest unem-
Housing stock data 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Vacancy rate in %
Permits for new buildings
Finished apartments
Housing stock
Housing stock in apartment buildings
Source: empirica (vacancy), NRW Statistics Office, compiled by CBRE
86 | LEG Housing Market Report NRW 2012
ployment rate of all the cities and districts of
North Rhine-Westphalia included in this report.
However, the figure has fallen sharply
over recent years. Unemployment was still
as high as 23.4 percent in 2005. Fast forward
six years and the unemployment rate
had dropped by almost 10 percentage points
to 14.2 percent. With chemicals, metal processing,
energy and healthcare, the Ruhr city
is doing everything in its power to find its
feet – including prioritizing education and
training. Gelsenkirchen University of Applied
Sciences, which has faculties in Bocholt
and Recklinghausen, has a good reputation
in the university landscape of North Rhine-
Westphalia. Another key element of the local
qualification campaign is Hans Schwier
Vocational College, which is home to all of
the students in the state studying professions
with only a small number of trainees.
Despite growth over recent years, Gelsenkirchen
remains one of the cities with the
lowest purchasing power in North Rhine-
Westphalia: Residents have average annual
income of €17,214 per capita. With average
rents also low, however, the housing cost
burden is moderate.
Rental properties in the lower
market segment in demand
Rental development in Gelsenkirchen was
inconsistent in 2011. Across the city as a
whole, asking rents for apartments were
0.6 percent lower than in the previous year,
with newly advertised properties commanding
an average of €4.75 per square
meter per month. By contrast, apartments
in the lower market segment were
significantly more expensive than in the
previous year. At €3.81 per square meter
per month, tenants had to pay almost 20
cents more for a newly advertised apartment
than in 2010 – a rise of 5.2 percent.
Although prices fell by 2.2 percent in the
period from 2009 to 2010, this ultimately
means that affordable housing is now more
expensive than it was two years ago. In the
upper market segment, the trend of falling
rents that began in the previous year continued,
with the average asking rent declining
by 6.4 percent to €6.03 per square
meter. Postcode area 45894 (Buer) is a special
case. Asking rents per square meter
in the upper market segment are around
the €8 mark, significantly higher than the
other postcode areas. At €3,358, however,
households in Buer also have easily the
highest purchasing power in the city, meaning
that they can cope with corresponding
rents and they have a housing cost ratio of
just 17.5 percent.
Compared with 2009, average rents in six
of the 13 postcode areas are now higher,
while prospective new tenants pay less in
five of the postcode areas. In the other two
3.4 3.6 3.3 3.5 3.9 4.8 n/a
381 395 256 159 205 233 332
256 348 517 198 172 236 229
141,214 141,535 142,030 142,069 142,175 142,285 142,506
84.5 84.4 84.3 84.2 84.2 84.2 84.1