Investment Properties in Zwickau: Figures, Locations and an Honest Calculation

Michael Pauker · 2026-10-13

A rented apartment for €75,000, mathematically almost 6% gross yield: you can find such figures in Zwickau. Anyone looking at these prices from Munich or Frankfurt wonders what the catch is.

There is one, and it is well documented. In the 2022 census, more than every eighth apartment in Zwickau was vacant. The city has been losing residents for decades, over 1,000 in 2025 alone. And the largest employer, the VW plant in Mosel, is restructuring.

This page presents both side by side: the low prices and the reasons for them. At the end, we calculate an apartment, once with full rent and once with vacancy.

01Zwickau in Figures

All values we use for classification, with source and status. Where there are only values for the district, this is noted.

02Population and Vacancy

Zwickau had just under 123,000 residents in 1990. At the end of 2025, it was 86,405, around 30% fewer. The decline is not over: in 2025 alone, the city lost 1,005 residents, 1.1%. For the Zwickau district, the BBSR expects a fifth fewer residents by 2045 than in 2022. In the BBSR evaluation, the district has the weakest development (−18.5% from 2021 to 2045) among all centrally located districts in Germany. Already in 2024, almost every third resident in the district was 65 or older.

Fewer residents mean fewer households looking for an apartment. This can be seen in the vacancy rate. In the 2022 census, 7,369 apartments in Zwickau were vacant, 13.1% of the stock. This is more than three times as much as in Dresden (4.0%) or Leipzig (4.4%). 4,074 of these apartments had been vacant for at least a year.

There is also another side. 49.2% of Zwickau households consisted of one person in 2022, and two thirds of the apartments were rented. Well-maintained, smaller apartments in good locations also find tenants in Zwickau. The key is that your apartment belongs to this part of the market and not to the surplus.

03Economy and Labour Market

Zwickau is an industrial location with a long tradition of car building. As of 30.06.2025, 50,688 employees subject to social insurance worked in the city, more than live and work here. 29,704 commuted in from outside, only 13,596 Zwickau residents worked outside.

The largest employer is the Volkswagen plant in the Mosel district, where electric cars are built. According to a report from March 2026, around 1,200 jobs were lost there through retirement, severance agreements and non-renewal of fixed-term contracts. The plant now only runs two shifts instead of three. The site is secured until the end of 2030, after which vehicles are to be reconditioned and dismantled there, potentially with around 1,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate in the Zwickau district was 6.1% in 2025; no current value is available for the city alone. In addition, there is the West Saxon University of Applied Sciences Zwickau with around 3,000 students.

For landlords, this means: demand depends heavily on an industry that is currently being restructured. Many in-commuters show that there is work in the city. However, they also show that many employees prefer to live in the surrounding area.

04Rents, Purchase Prices and Rental Yield

A new rental mirror has been in effect in Zwickau since 01.09.2025. It is a simple rental mirror, not a qualified one. It distinguishes by year of construction, size and an equipment class determined by a point system. For an apartment with 45 to 70 sqm from the years 1970 to 1990 with medium equipment, it specifies €5.57/sqm, for example, with a range from €5.10 to €6.00/sqm. Most table fields are between around €4.50 and €7/sqm, only well-equipped apartments from 2011 onwards reach just under €10/sqm.

In the 2022 census, Zwickau tenants paid an average of €5.20/sqm. New listings in the district were €6.03/sqm in 2025.

The expert committee also specifies yield factors, i.e. the ratio of purchase price to annual rent. For renovated old buildings it is 17, for apartments after 1990 it is 23. This is the same as the purchase price factor you know from advertisements. We have used this to calculate the gross rental yield with various rents.

These yields are significantly above those in Leipzig or Dresden. However, they are not a gift from the market. The price is low because buyers factor in the risk: empty months, difficult rent increases and a resale that can take time. Anyone who considers the gross yield to be a fixed income is calculating incorrectly. You can calculate your own case with the rental yield calculator.

05Districts at a Glance

The expert committee also reports purchase prices by sub-districts. The number of cases is sometimes small, and some values are largely based on a single property. We therefore only show values with sufficient sales.

There is often a large gap between the mean value and the median in Zwickau. This means: there are a few expensive, well-renovated apartments and many very cheap ones. Therefore, do not look at the average, but at how your apartment is to be classified within this range.

06Rules for Landlords in Zwickau

No rent brake applies in Zwickau. The Saxon ordinance only applies in Dresden and Leipzig until 30.06.2027. For a new letting, the rent level is freely negotiable, limited only by the prohibition of rent gouging (Section 5 Economic Offences Act) and rent usury. In practice, the market limits the rent in Zwickau rather than the law.

For an existing contract, the general capping limit of 20% in three years applies, up to a maximum of the local customary comparative rent. Because the Zwickau rental mirror is a simple rental mirror, it does not have the same evidentiary value in court as a qualified one. However, it is the usual basis for rent increases.

When buying in Saxony, you pay 5.5% land transfer tax. In addition, there are notary and land registry fees. For small purchase prices, their share is higher because part of the fees is fixed: for a €74,685 purchase price and full financing, it is around €1,790 or 2.4%. Together with the land transfer tax, this results in around €5,900 or 7.9%, without a broker. Check with the purchase cost calculator; the items at the notary are explained in our article on notary costs.

07Example Calculation: A Let Apartment in Zwickau

Let's take Sabine, 47, single, employed with a taxable income of €60,000. She buys a let, renovated old building apartment with 65 sqm in the city centre, built in 1905. The purchase price of €74,685 corresponds to the average value of the expert committee for such apartments. The rent of €5.63/sqm results from the yield factor 17 determined by the expert committee and fits the values in the rental mirror. The name is fictitious, the figures are a calculation example and not a forecast.

Fully let, Sabine pays around €40 per month after tax, less than the €93 repayment. Without repayment, a small surplus of around €53 per month remains. This is significantly better than in most West German cities.

Now comes the part that advertisements rarely show. With 13% vacancy in the city, a change of tenant with several empty months is no exception.

Two empty months swallow almost all the advantage over more expensive cities. Half a year of vacancy costs a monthly average of €183 over the year. In addition, there is a risk that the calculation does not show: if renovation of the roof or facade is due in an old building, a special levy can quickly cost several annual rents. The reserve of the owners' association is therefore at least as important in Zwickau as the purchase price.

For comparison: a new-build apartment in Zwickau

There is no basis for a comparison with a newly built apartment in Zwickau. The expert committee only registered first sales of new condominiums in other municipalities in the district for 2024 and 2025, not in the city of Zwickau. We do not want to set up a calculation with a fictitious price.

Basically, the following also applies here: new-build apartments with construction start between 01.10.2023 and 30.09.2029 can be depreciated degressively at 5% per year (Section 7 (5a) EStG), and apartments let for the first time after 01.10.2014 are permanently exempt from the rent brake (Section 556f BGB). Whether a new build in a market with 13% vacancy is permanently lettable at a rent of €9 to €10/sqm would have to be checked individually for each project.

08Opportunities and Risks in Zwickau

The opportunity in Zwickau is the price. For less than €100,000 you get a renovated, let apartment that almost pays for itself with financing when fully let. The purchase costs remain absolutely low, the land transfer tax of 5.5% is lower than in Brandenburg (6.5%). Without a rent brake, you are free for new lettings.

The risks are greater in Zwickau than in almost all other cities on our list:

• Vacancy: 13.1% in the 2022 census, more than half of it for more than a year. Empty months are likely, not just possible.
• Shrinking: minus 30% residents since 1990, minus 1.1% in 2025 alone, forecast for the district minus 20% by 2045.
• Dependency on VW: 1,200 jobs have already been lost at the plant; what comes after 2030 is planned, but not secured.
• Low rents that are difficult to increase: Oversupply limits rent increases more than any capping limit.
• Resale: Prices are low because demand is low. A sale can take a long time or only succeed with a discount.
• Old building and reserve: Many apartments are in buildings from before 1918; renovations can trigger special levies.

The general advantages and disadvantages of a condominium as an investment can be found in our article Condominium as an investment.

09Other Locations

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