Investment Properties in Göttingen: What the 2026 Figures Say

Kevin Celentano · 2026-10-13

Göttingen is considered a city where small apartments can always be rented out. The university with around 27,700 students, the university hospital, and a commuter surplus of around 28,000 employees speak for this. In more than every second household, only one person lives.

However, there is one figure that appears in no sales brochure. The State Statistical Office expects around 12.8% fewer residents for the city by 2045. Among the major cities in Lower Saxony, this is the strongest expected decline.

Anyone buying in Göttingen should know both. We have compiled the official data, calculated the price-to-rent ratio and rental yield ourselves, and played through a small apartment and a new build apartment down to after taxes.

01Göttingen in Figures

The table pools the most important data. Each row has its source and status.

Three out of four apartments in Göttingen are rented. The owner-occupancy rate is low at a good 24%, even for a university city.

02Population and Demand

Since the 2011 Census, Göttingen has grown from 115,843 to 124,548 residents at the 2022 Census. The official update reached 130,521 at the end of 2025. The driver is primarily the influx of young people for studies and the first years of career. In the Census, the 20- to 29-year-olds were by far the largest age group in the city.

For the future, the State Statistical Office is skeptical. In its February 2026 projection, Göttingen loses around 10% by 2040 and around 12.8% of its residents by 2045 in the medium variant. About a third of this is due to more people moving away than in, two-thirds due to more deaths than births. Even in the most favorable variant, a minus of a good 10% remains.

How reliable is this? Forecasts for university cities are difficult because students come and go and enrollments fluctuate. A projection is not a certainty. However, it is a warning signal that you should include in your calculation: in Göttingen, do not expect rising demand, but stable or falling demand.

For renting, the household structure also counts. According to the 2022 Census, more than half of all households consisted of one person; in Osnabrück, it was nearly every second. Small apartments are therefore the segment with the broadest demand.

03Economy and Labor Market

Göttingen is a workplace for the whole region. According to the city's Statistical Social Report, 74,680 social security-covered employees work here, but only 46,852 live in Göttingen. Around 41,800 people commute in, and around 13,800 out. The surplus of about 28,000 in-commuters shows how strongly the region is oriented towards the jobs in the city.

The core is formed by science and health. University Medicine employs around 9,700 people with its subsidiaries. A new clinic building is being constructed for around €1.1 billion by 2029, with operation scheduled to start in 2030. In addition, there is the university, several Max Planck Institutes, and the laboratory supplier Sartorius with its headquarters in the city.

This structure is less dependent on the economic cycle than an industrial location. However, it depends on public budgets and on medical and biotech demand. Sartorius had announced job cuts at its headquarters via a voluntary program in 2023.

We did not find an unemployment rate specifically for the city. In the Göttingen agency district, it was 6.5% in September 2026, with 15,750 unemployed, and thus at the level of the previous year.

04Rents, Purchase Prices, and Rental Yield

Göttingen has the highest existing rents among the major cities in Lower Saxony. The Census determined an average of €8.38/m² net cold in 2022. On portals such as miet-check.de, the asking rent of the last twelve months was €12.11/m².

For your calculation, the rent index (Mietspiegel) counts. Göttingen has a simple rent index from 2023, which the city updated by 6.3% with the consumer price index as of May 1, 2025. It shows a pattern that is important for investors. Small apartments up to 50 m² built between 1978 and 2015 are at €9.94/m². Apartments with 50 to 80 m² from the same time only reach €7.39/m².

Purchase prices come from the Expert Committees in Lower Saxony. In the 2025 report year, a used condominium in the city of Göttingen cost a median of €2,530/m², evaluated from 405 sales. In the surrounding area without the city, it was €1,700/m².

The purchase price is an average across all apartment sizes; the rent applies to small apartments. Small apartments often cost more per square meter, so the price-to-rent ratio is higher in practice. For a medium-sized apartment from the 1960s with €7.27/m² rent index rent, the gross rental yield would be only around 3.4%.

How high is the rental yield of your apartment? Enter purchase price, rent, and incidental costs, the calculator shows gross and net rental yield.

05Overview of City Districts

The Expert Committees do not publish official purchase prices per district. The rent details are asking rents from advertisements of the last twelve months (miet-check.de) and are above the existing rents. For the city center (Innenstadt) and the Ostviertel, the portal does not report a separate value.

The distance between the cheapest and the most expensive area is around €2/m². More important than the district in Göttingen is the apartment size. On Holtenser Berg, the city designated a renovation area in September 2026; north of it, the Europaquartier with around 600 apartments is to be built starting in 2027.

06Rules for Landlords in Göttingen

Göttingen is one of the 57 municipalities that Lower Saxony has designated as a tight housing market.

• Rent control (Mietpreisbremse): For a new rental, the rent may be at most 10% above the local comparable rent. The Lower Saxony Tenant Protection Ordinance applies until Dec 31, 2029. Exemptions apply for a higher previous rent, for apartments first used and rented after Oct 1, 2014, and after extensive modernization.
• Rent increase cap (Kappungsgrenze): In ongoing tenancies, the rent may rise by at most 15% in three years.
• Conversion protection: The division of a rental building into condominiums requires a permit until Dec 31, 2029, under § 250 BauGB. The purchase of an existing condominium is not affected.
• Termination notice period: After the sale of a converted, rented apartment, the buyer can only terminate for personal use after five years.
• Misappropriation (Zweckentfremdung): Lower Saxony allows cities to make renting as a vacation home or long-term vacancy subject to approval. Whether such a statute applies in Göttingen should be clarified with the city before purchasing if you plan furnished short-term rentals.

When buying in Lower Saxony, you pay 5.0% property transfer tax. In addition, notary and land registry cost around 1.5 to 2% and potentially a broker. The guide to notary costs explains what the notary costs. The closing costs calculator calculates your own closing costs.

07Example Calculation: a Rented Apartment in Göttingen

Let's take Daniel. He is employed, single, and has a taxable income of €75,000. He buys a rented apartment with 48 m² in a building from the 1980s. He pays €2,530/m², the median for used apartments in 2025. The tenant pays €9.50/m² cold, below the rent index value of €9.94/m². The name is fictional, the figures are a calculation example and not a forecast.

Daniel pays around €160 extra per month after taxes and simultaneously repays around €200. Without repayment, a surplus of nearly €490 per year remains after taxes. The small apartment thus pays for itself better in Göttingen than a larger one because the rent index values small apartments significantly higher.

The tax savings, on the other hand, are small. Daniel deducts interest, depreciation (AfA), and the administrative part of the service charges. For a building from the 1980s, a depreciation of 2% per year applies; we set the building share at 75%. Because the rent is high in relation to the purchase price, only a small tax loss remains.

Honestly calculated, Göttingen is one of the locations for small apartments where the rent carries a large part of the financing. This comes at a price: frequent tenant changes, more administrative effort, and a demand that depends on the university. You can read about how rental income is taxed in the guide taxing rental income.

For comparison: a new build apartment in Göttingen

Suppose Daniel instead buys a newly built apartment with 45 m² from a developer and rents it out for the first time. According to the Expert Committees, apartments built from 2023 cost a median of €5,260/m² in the 2025 report year. As rent, we set €17.56/m², the asking rent for apartments from construction year 2021 on miet-check.de. Income, interest, and repayment remain as above.

With this rent, Daniel pays only around €58 extra per month after taxes instead of around €160, and he repays around €395 instead of around €200. The depreciation is more than five times as high as with the existing stock, and a new building usually needs less maintenance in the first few years. In return, the square meter costs a good twice as much, and the gross rental yield at around 4.0% is below the small existing apartment (4.5%).

Here, too, much depends on the rent. With the rent index value for small apartments from construction year 2016 (€13.34/m²), the gross rental yield drops to around 3.0%, and Daniel pays around €172 extra per month after taxes. Rent control does not apply to apartments first used and rented after Oct 1, 2014 (§ 556f BGB), but the increase cap for later increases does. The degressive depreciation decreases every year because it calculates from the residual value. The AfA calculator shows the progression.

08Chances and Risks

There are belegable reasons for Göttingen. And against it too.

Chances

• University, colleges, and university hospital ensure broad demand for small apartments.
• More than half of all households consist of one person.
• Around 28,000 more in-commuters than out-commuters; with the new clinic building, a long-term investment is coming to the city.
• Small apartments achieve a gross rental yield of around 4.5% with rent index rent.
• Only around a quarter of apartments are occupied by the owners themselves.

Risks

• The state office expects around 12.8% fewer residents by 2045; the city is not growing in any variant.
• Demand depends heavily on the number of students, which can fluctuate.
• Frequent tenant changes mean more effort and short vacancies between two tenants.
• Rent control and a 15% increase cap limit rent increases until at least late 2029.
• Larger apartments achieve significantly lower rents per square meter according to the rent index.