Why property management in Germany is getting more expensive — and why a good one still pays

What is happening

If your property manager has announced a fee adjustment this year, you are in good company. According to the industry barometer 2026 of the German association of property managers (VDIV), the average fee for managing an owners’ association (WEG — roughly the German equivalent of an HOA) was €29.12 per unit per month in 2025, 2.7 per cent more than the year before. For 2026, managers plan an average of €31.77 — a jump of 9.1 per cent. In rental management the rate was €30.19, with a planned increase of 12.1 per cent.

Before you put that down to greed: for many years the opposite was the problem. Since 2010, WEG fees have risen by only around 1.5 per cent a year in real terms — about 29 cents per unit per year. Over the same period, the job has changed fundamentally. Much of what you are seeing now is catching up.

For context: the figures are based on what managers report themselves and are national averages. They show where the industry is heading — not what every association has to pay. Small older buildings are regularly above them, large new-build developments below. What is usual in Nuremberg, Fürth and Erlangen is covered in our article on property management costs.

Why costs are rising

More duties, more responsibility

Since the 2020 reform of the German condominium act (WEG), the manager acts for the association and decides many things that used to require an owners’ meeting. That makes management faster, but also carries more liability. Since December 2023, every owner can demand that the association appoints a certified manager (zertifizierter Verwalter); on top of that comes the ongoing training obligation under § 34c GewO.

At the same time, building energy law has turned heating into a permanent project: heating replacement, CO₂ cost sharing, remotely readable meters by the end of 2026, EV charging points in the underground car park. Ten years ago none of this was routine. Today all of it has to be prepared, voted on, put out to tender, commissioned and documented.

Managers feel this above all as unpredictability. Almost two thirds name the hard-to-predict time needed per property as their biggest day-to-day challenge, and more than a third name additional tasks that cannot be calculated in advance.

Good people are scarce

62.1 per cent of the managers surveyed say they are overloaded, and more than half cannot fill open positions. Experienced property managers only come with good salaries. Already in the 2025 barometer, almost half of the companies saw higher fees as the most important measure against staff shortages.

Technology is mandatory, not optional

Property management software, audit-proof records, an owners’ portal, IT security: these are basic operating requirements today. They cost money before they save time. Used well, however, they absorb part of the cost increase — not every bit of extra work has to end up with the owner.

A cross-subsidy has gone

In rental management, many managers kept their basic fee low for years because every new tenancy brought in a letting commission. That is over. On 21 May 2026, the Federal Court of Justice ruled that a manager may not charge a commission for letting flats it manages itself — neither to the tenant nor to the landlord (I ZR 224/25, § 2(2) WoVermittG). Ongoing management now has to pay for itself. That explains a good part of the jump in rental management fees.

Why some offers are still cheap

Even so, you will still find offers well below these figures. That is rarely bad intent, more often a lack of calculation. A VDIV survey of 458 managers from February 2026 shows that a considerable share do not price systematically on cost and margin, and time spent is not recorded across the board. Hourly rates are in the contract but often not billed. Add to that old contracts that have run unchanged for years.

A price like that holds as long as nothing happens. When the heating replacement, a major water damage claim or a legal dispute comes along, the manager has three options: work unpaid, work more slowly, or leave. For owners, that looks exactly like what we hear in many conversations: nobody reachable, the annual statement arriving just before year-end, answers after weeks.

The correction is already under way. 57.1 per cent of managers plan to drop properties that take too much time, and almost half want to give up unprofitable mandates. At 45.9 per cent of them, more than half of the enquiries from owners’ associations were turned down, not followed up or answered with a deliberately high “deterrent” quote. If you find a manager at 2015 prices today, you often have not found a cheap manager — just a temporary one.

What a good manager brings back

The fee is easy to compare; the result is not. Yet most of your costs are decided not by the management fee but by the monthly owners’ contribution (Hausgeld) and the value of your flat.

Insurance and damage

Buildings insurance is one of the fastest-growing items for many associations. The adjustment factor that premiums are based on has risen from around 17 in 2016 to 27.6 in 2026. Water damage from leaking pipes reached a record €4.9 billion in 2024 — more than double the figure ten years earlier. After a large claim the insurer may cancel the policy, and finding a new one then becomes difficult.

A manager who reviews tariffs regularly, sets deductibles deliberately, records damage quickly and fixes causes instead of just reporting them protects the association from exactly that.

Deadlines that are worth real money

For owners who let their flat, a punctual annual statement is not a convenience. The tenant’s utility cost statement (Nebenkostenabrechnung) must reach the tenant within twelve months, otherwise any additional claim is lost (§ 556(3) BGB). And if the switch to remotely readable meters is missed by the end of 2026, tenants may reduce their heating costs by three per cent (§ 12 HeizkostenV) — in every let unit, year after year.

Maintenance with a plan

An adequate maintenance reserve (Erhaltungsrücklage) and maintenance planning over several years turn emergency repairs into planned projects with competing quotes. That saves money on the work itself and avoids special levies that catch owners off guard. It pays off at the latest when you sell: buyers and banks read the minutes, the reserve and the budget. A maintenance backlog pushes down the price of every flat in the building.

Resolutions that hold

A properly prepared resolution — correct invitation, complete documents, clear wording — survives a legal challenge or is never challenged in the first place. A flawed one costs court and lawyers’ fees and delays the project by months.

Time

And finally: advisory board members and owners who do not have to chase, hunt for receipts and coordinate contractors gain time. For many, that is the reason to hire a manager in the first place.

A worked example

Take an association with 20 flats and two offers that are €6 per unit per month apart. For the whole association that is €1,440 a year; for each individual owner, €72.

Set against that: buildings insurance of, say, €12,000 a year, where renegotiating saves ten per cent — €1,200. A water leak found a week earlier. An additional utility claim a landlord keeps because the annual statement arrived on time. A roof renovation awarded with three competing quotes instead of in an emergency.

None of these is guaranteed. But each one on its own can outweigh a whole year’s price difference. And measured against the asset: €30 a month on a flat worth €250,000 is around 0.14 per cent of its value per year. The real question is not whether property management is expensive, but whether it earns its money.

What to look for in an offer

If your current manager announces an increase, look at the performance, not just the number. Did the last annual statement arrive on time and in a form you could check? Were resolutions carried out? An increase with good performance is usually a better deal than switching to the cheapest offer. An increase with poor performance, on the other hand, is a good reason to think about changing your property manager.

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Ravenica prices every mandate on full costs and uses digital processes where they save time — so the price in your offer still covers the service you chose three years from now. Request an offer for your building.