Rental development in (inner) city retail 2018-2025

For the first time, the listing data were weighted using OSM retail entries; in addition, the central inner-city location is delineated in more detail based on walkable access to the main shopping street. The key findings of the analysis are as follows:

• Retail rents in urban areas across the 16 metropolitan markets analysed (entire city area) increased by an average of 6.0 percent in 2025 (A7 cities: +6.4 percent). As a result, quality-adjusted retail rent growth in major cities significantly exceeded the general inflation rate of around 2.3 percent, thereby offsetting the weaker performance observed in previous years.
• For central inner-city locations, an average annual price premium of around 60 percent compared with the wider city area is estimated. However, this premium declined noticeably over the period under review (2018–2025), falling from 69 percent to 52 percent. This decline is offset in prime locations on main shopping streets, particularly in the A7 cities. The results suggest that retail activity in city centres is recovering, while increasingly concentrating on the most central and prominent high streets.
• Currently, particularly high rent increases in the overall city area are observed in Munich (+10.2 percent) and Düsseldorf (+9.5 percent). However, year-on-year comparisons at individual location level should be interpreted with caution due to increased volatility and heterogeneity combined with a limited number of observations.
• Over the full period from 2018 to 2025, average annual rent growth predominantly ranges between 2 and 4 percent per year, both in the overall city area and in inner-city locations. Outliers include Bremen, with the strongest medium-term rent growth (+4.7 percent per year in both the city area and the inner city), and Stuttgart, with the weakest growth (+1.8 percent per year in the city area and +0.4 percent per year in the inner city). Despite this low growth dynamic, Stuttgart remains the second most expensive inner-city location after Munich, based on median rents.

Overall, the results indicate an upward trend in brick-and-mortar retailing. This development is driven both by a consolidation of the market—reflected in an overall decline in the number of listings—and by a less dynamic development in online retail.