# Methodology: How Our Market Data and Examples Are Calculated

> Where the purchase and rent prices on InvestBud come from, how medians, rental yield and price multiple are calculated, when an area gets its own page, and which assumptions the examples use.

Canonical: https://www.investbud.de/en/methodology

This page explains where the figures on our market and calculator pages come from and how we calculate them. It covers property prices, rent prices, the rental yield ranking and the monthly market report.

## Data source

All prices and rents are asking data: we analyse publicly listed flats for sale and for rent and recalculate the figures every day. Asking prices are not notarised sale prices and not a valuation under § 194 BauGB; the sale price is negotiated and can differ. Our rents are asking rents for new lettings, not a municipality's official Mietspiegel.

## Metrics

- Price and rent per m²: The median of all matching listings; the range shows the 25th to 75th percentile.
- Gross rental yield: Annual cold rent divided by the purchase price, from the medians per m².
- Price multiple: Purchase price divided by the annual cold rent.
- Days on market: The median listing duration of completed listings.
- Price cuts: The share of listings whose price was reduced while listed.

## When an area gets a page

A handful of listings does not give reliable figures, so an area gets its own page only above a minimum number of listings; smaller areas appear as a row on their parent page, and their addresses lead there.

- Rent prices for a postal code: at least 10 rental listings in the postal code.
- Rent prices for a city: at least 30 rental listings across the city, or 2 postal codes with their own page.
- Property prices for a city: at least 50 listings for sale, among the 100 cities with the most listings.
- Property prices for a district: at least 50 listings for sale, in the 5 cities with the most listings.
- Rental yield ranking: at least 50 listings for sale for a place in the nationwide ranking, 30 in a state's ranking.
- A state's ranking: at least 5 cities for the state to get a page of its own.

Once published, a page stays until its listings fall below 70% of the threshold, so pages do not appear and disappear day by day.

## Assumptions in the examples

The closing-cost and financing examples on the market pages use the same defaults as our analysis.

- Notary: 1.0%
- Land registry: 0.5%
- Broker: 3.57%
- Down payment: 20%
- Interest: 3.5%
- Term: 30 years

The down payment is a share of the price, and the loan is an annuity loan. Property transfer tax follows each state's law (table below). Hausgeld, maintenance, vacancy and taxes are not included. The examples are not investment advice.

## Property transfer tax by state

| State | Rate |
| --- | --- |
| Baden-Württemberg | 5.0% |
| Bavaria | 3.5% |
| Berlin | 6.0% |
| Brandenburg | 6.5% |
| Bremen | 5.5% |
| Hamburg | 5.5% |
| Hesse | 6.0% |
| Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania | 6.0% |
| Lower Saxony | 5.0% |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 6.5% |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 5.0% |
| Saarland | 6.5% |
| Saxony | 5.5% |
| Saxony-Anhalt | 5.0% |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 6.5% |
| Thuringia | 5.0% |

## Updates and corrections

Market data is recalculated daily, and every page shows the date of its data. If you find an error, write to us through the help page. We correct documented errors and note the date of the change.