According to the latest Heizspiegel 2024, heating costs will continue to fall this year, with the exception of district heating, where a significant increase is expected. But how many flats are affected by these rising district heating costs? A GeoMap analysis examined 1.5 million housing listings in Germany’s ten largest cities between 2021 and the third quarter of 2024.
Share of district heating: Munich, Berlin and Leipzig lead
In 2024, Munich, Berlin and Leipzig had the highest share of housing listings connected to district heating, measured against their total number of listings. In Munich, 9,787 of a total of 49,700 housing listings in 2024 had district heating, equivalent to a share of almost 20 per cent. Berlin reached a share of 18.5 per cent, with 19,700 of a total of 106,694 listings connected to district heating. In Leipzig, the share in 2024 was 18.2 per cent, as 4,407 of 24,190 housing listings had district heating.
In other cities such as Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main and Dortmund, the shares of district-heated listings were somewhat lower in 2024. In Hamburg, 6,567 of a total of 40,091 housing listings had a district heating connection, equivalent to a share of 16.4 per cent.
In Frankfurt am Main, listings with a district heating connection accounted for 12.8 per cent in 2024 (3,606 of 28,244 listings). By contrast, very few housing listings in Essen and Stuttgart had district heating. In Stuttgart, the share was only 7.6 per cent in 2024, and in Dortmund just 6.3 per cent.
Development of district heating shares by year of construction
The GeoMap analysis also examined housing listings with a district heating connection by year of construction. The results show that the share of flats with district heating is significantly higher in older buildings than in new builds.
In Berlin, the share of flats built in 2021 was 42.3 per cent, falling to around 36 per cent for new builds by 2024. Munich recorded a share of 37.3 per cent in 2021, which fell to just 18.5 per cent by 2024. At 46 per cent, Leipzig had the highest share of district-heated flats in 2021; this fell to 21.7 per cent by 2024.
The shares fluctuated in Hamburg and Frankfurt: Frankfurt reached a peak of 39.5 per cent in 2023, but fell to 13.2 per cent in 2024. In Düsseldorf, the share among new builds rose to 44.7 per cent in 2024, while Essen recorded the highest share in 2023 at 45.2 per cent, before falling to 5.2 per cent in 2024.
Data: GeoMap by Real Estate Pilot AG