Buy-to-let properties in Ingolstadt: Figures, locations and an honest calculation

Moe Afonso · 2026-10-13

Anyone who buys an apartment for letting in Ingolstadt is buying a piece of the "Audi city". Around 40,000 people work at the carmaker's headquarters, and almost half of all employees subject to social security contributions in the city work in industry. This ensures good incomes and a steady demand for apartments. However, it also makes the location dependent on a sector that is currently undergoing restructuring.

Prices have long factored this in. An existing condominium cost an average of around €4,000 per square metre in 2025, a new one over €6,000. At the same time, rent control (Mietpreisbremse) applies. The crucial question is therefore how much rent you get for this price.

We have compiled the official figures and, at the end, calculate an existing and a new apartment, before and after tax.

01Ingolstadt in figures

All values we use for classification, with source and date.

02Population and demand

Ingolstadt has grown significantly in the last ten years. At the end of 2015, the State Office counted 132,438 inhabitants; at the end of 2025, it was 140,799. That is 6.3% more. The comparison is not entirely clean because the figures until 2021 are based on the 2011 census and thereafter on the 2022 census. The direction is nevertheless clear. The city itself even counts over 145,000 people in its population register.

For the future, the State Office expects further growth. From 141,200 inhabitants at the end of 2024, Ingolstadt is projected to grow to around 147,600 by 2044, an increase of 4.5%. Bavaria as a whole grows by only 2.1% in the same calculation.

How do these people live? In the 2022 census, 45.3% of households consisted of only one person. This is less than in university cities like Regensburg or Erlangen, where it is over half. Ingolstadt is more a city of couples and families. For landlords, this means that two- and three-room apartments are as much in demand as studios. The owner-occupancy rate was 37.9%, meaning just over six out of ten apartments are let or vacant.

On the supply side, something has shifted. In 2018, 1,373 apartments were completed, but in 2024 only 763. The number of building permits has fallen from 1,402 in 2021 to 560 in 2024. This suggests that fewer new apartments will come onto the market in the next few years than were recently built.

03Economy and job market

In Ingolstadt, exactly 102,885 employees subject to social security contributions worked on 30/06/2024. Only 65,228 employees lived in the city. Daily, significantly more people come in to work than drive out. Some of these commuters are potential tenants for apartments in the city.

Industry is defining. 48% of employees at the place of work worked in the manufacturing sector in 2024, compared to around a quarter in Erlangen. The largest employer is Audi, with around 40,000 employees at its headquarters (as of 31/12/2025). Added to this are suppliers, logistics, the hospital and the Technical University.

This structure has a downside. The number of employees at the place of work was 107,531 in 2019 and fell by 4.3% by 2024. Audi has announced that it will cut up to 7,500 jobs in Germany by the end of 2029, primarily in administration and development and without compulsory redundancies. The job security guarantee applies until the end of 2033. How many jobs will be lost in Ingolstadt has not been officially quantified.

The unemployment rate was 5.2% in September 2026, compared to 4.9% a year earlier. This is less than the national average of 6.4%, but more than the Bavarian average of 4.2%. For landlords, the development is more important than the value itself: as long as the automotive industry is restructuring, the job market in Ingolstadt is less predictable than in cities with a broader economy.

The Ingolstadt Technical University had around 8,600 students in the winter semester of 2025/26. They primarily seek small apartments near the old town, where the main campus is located.

04Rents, purchase prices and rental yield

Ingolstadt has a qualified rental mirror (Mietspiegel). The city adjusted it for inflation in 2025, and it is valid until 31/10/2027. It quotes a base rent per apartment size, to which surcharges and deductions are applied. For a 60 sqm apartment, the base is €8.05/sqm; for 45 sqm, it is €8.68/sqm. This changes significantly depending on the year of construction: apartments from 1970 to 1980 receive a 9% deduction, while a 36% surcharge applies from the year of construction 2016 onwards. A fitted kitchen adds 9%, and a good residential location adds 12%.

The 2022 census arrived at an average net cold rent of €9.16/sqm for Ingolstadt, across all current tenancy agreements. Both values show that an existing apartment here rarely exceeds €10/sqm.

Purchase prices are sourced from the Upper Expert Committee for Bavaria, which evaluates the purchase contracts of all cities. For existing condominiums over 45 sqm, it quotes a median price of €4,000/sqm for 2025, the same as in 2024 and slightly less than in 2023. New-build apartments cost €6,100/sqm, 3.2% less than in the previous year. The average for Bavarian independent cities was €5,300 and €7,900/sqm respectively. Ingolstadt is therefore below the average but far above cities like Bamberg or Fürth.

The purchase price factor results from the purchase price and rent, i.e., how many years' rent an apartment costs. Its reciprocal is the gross rental yield.

Even at the upper limit of the rent control, the gross yield remains just over 3%. After non-recoverable costs, reserves and vacancy, it is less. You can check your own apartment most quickly with the rental yield calculator.

05Districts at a glance

Ingolstadt is divided into twelve city districts. Official purchase prices or rents per district are not published freely by the city or the expert committee. We therefore describe the most important locations without price information.

The quality of an individual address can be found in the residential location index for the rental mirror. It assigns every street to one of three residential locations (Wohnlagen). A good location brings a 12% surcharge on the comparable rent, while a simple location brings a 4% deduction. This difference is smaller than that between two construction years.

06Rules for landlords in Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt is listed in the Bavarian Tenant Protection Ordinance. The city is thus considered an area with a tense housing market until at least 31/12/2029.

For the calculation, this means: the rental mirror is decisive, not the price in an advertisement. For an apartment with a comparable rent of €9.42/sqm, you may charge a maximum of around €10.36/sqm for a new tenancy. More is only possible if the previous tenant already paid more or if the apartment has been extensively modernised.

When buying in Bavaria, you pay 3.5% real estate transfer tax (Grunderwerbsteuer). Notary and land registry costs with financing amount to around 1.7% to 1.8% of the purchase price. Without an agent, you thus arrive at around 5.2% purchase costs. You can calculate your case with the purchase cost calculator, and the individual positions at the notary are explained in our article on notary costs.

07Calculation example: a let apartment in Ingolstadt

Let's take Jonas, 38, single, engineer with a taxable income of €70,000. He buys a let condominium with 60 sqm, built in 1985, in a normal residential location with a fitted kitchen. The purchase price corresponds to the average value of existing apartments in 2025. The rent is exactly at the rental mirror level. The name is fictional, the figures are a calculation example and not a forecast.

In this example, Jonas pays around €341 per month out of his own pocket after tax. €300 of this flows into repayment and thus into his own wealth. Viewed without repayment, a small minus of around €41 per month remains after tax.

Why does he save so much tax? With €70,000, Jonas is just in the range of the top tax rate of 42%. Every euro of loss from letting therefore reduces his tax by a good 40 cents. How exactly this works is explained in our article on taxing rental income.

The interest rate moves the calculation four times more than any leeway in the rent. With purchase prices around €4,000/sqm and rents under €10/sqm, financing decides the case in Ingolstadt, not the rent.

For comparison: a new-build apartment in Ingolstadt

What changes if Jonas buys a newly built apartment? We take 45 sqm at the average price determined by the Upper Expert Committee for new-build apartments in 2025: €6,100/sqm, which is €274,500. He again pays real estate transfer tax (€9,607) and notary with land registry costs (€4,581) from equity, totalling €14,188. For rent, we set the rental mirror: base rent for 45 sqm of €8.68/sqm plus 36% for the construction year 2016 and later, plus surcharges for fitted kitchen, lift and floor-level shower. This results in €13.45/sqm. Because new builds are permanently exempt from rent control according to § 556f BGB, more is also possible if the market allows it.

Compared to the existing apartment, the depreciation in the first year is almost three times as high (€11,490 instead of €4,020). For maintenance, less is usually required in a new house in the first few years. However, the square metre costs over 50% more, and the gross rental yield drops from 2.8% to around 2.6%. Before tax, Jonas pays an extra €661 per month here, and around €159 after tax. The declining-balance depreciation is calculated every year from the smaller residual value, so the tax savings decrease in subsequent years. Anyone buying before completion also bears the risk of a construction delay.

08Opportunities and risks in Ingolstadt

There are demonstrable points in favour of Ingolstadt. The city grew by a good 6% in ten years and is expected to grow further until 2044 according to the State Office, more than Bavaria as a whole. Vacancy is low, and fewer buildings are being constructed than a few years ago. Many jobs, good incomes and tens of thousands of daily commuters ensure demand. And the real estate transfer tax is 3.5%, the lowest in Germany.

In contrast, there are equally clear points:

• Dependence on one sector: Almost half of the employees work in industry, and the largest employer is cutting jobs.
• Low gross yield: With rents according to the rental mirror, it is below 3%.
• Rigid rent control: The rental mirror and the 10% limit at new letting provide little scope for existing stock.
• Rising unemployment: The rate is currently above the Bavarian average.

09Read more

• Real estate transfer tax in Bavaria
• Buying your first property: step by step
• Taxing rental income
• Qualified rental mirror in the glossary

10Sources

All sources accessed on 13/10/2026.

• Bavarian State Office for Statistics: Population development in Ingolstadt (Municipal data profile); Demographic profile Ingolstadt 2044 (April 2026)
• Statistische Ämter des Bundes und der Länder, 2022 Census database (households, vacancy, rents)
• Employment Agency Ingolstadt: Job market report September 2026
• City of Ingolstadt: Qualified Rental Mirror 2025
• Upper Expert Committee for Property Values in Bavaria: Property Market Report Bavaria 2026 (data for 2025)
• Technical University Ingolstadt: Facts and Figures
• Bavarian Tenant Protection Ordinance (Mieterschutzverordnung), valid until 31/12/2029
• Own calculations, status 13/10/2026

Note: This guide provides general information and does not replace legal or tax advice. All figures are example calculations with disclosed assumptions, status 13/10/2026.