MVDI publishes ImmoBench market report: Operating costs are becoming a key challenge for residential real estate

Last year, MVDI agreed with Bauakademie Performance GmbH on a strategic further development of the proven benchmarking tool ImmoBench, which has successfully established itself as the leading benchmarking system for operating costs in the housing industry since 1999.

The current evaluation by ImmoBench, which is based on billed data from 2023, shows that operating costs are increasingly becoming a decisive factor for the affordability of housing. Ancillary costs have increased significantly, especially since the energy crisis caused by the Ukraine war, as well as inflation, rising personnel costs and regulatory requirements. According to the market report, the median total operating costs were 2.69 euros per square meter and month, after 2.32 euros in the previous year. This means that operating costs rose by around 16 percent compared to the same period last year.

Heating operating costs in particular rose significantly. Compared to the previous year, they increased by around 42 percent. In many housing stocks, operating costs now account for between 40 and 50 percent of the total rent.

"Operating costs have long since ceased to be just an administrative accounting item, but a strategic competitive factor in the housing industry. In the future, companies will have to move more strongly from pure billing to active operating cost management," says Dr. Thomas Glatte, Managing Director of MVDI, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Rhein-Neckar Real Estate Group as well as Professor of Real Estate Management at the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences and member of the advisory board of the market report.

The ImmoBench report identifies six types of costs in particular as central cost drivers: ongoing public charges, water supply and drainage, heating and hot water costs, house cleaning, insurance and caretaker services. These items make up the majority of the apportionable operating costs.

The results of the current market report clearly show that operating costs will become even more of a focus for housing companies, owners and managers in the future. In addition to rising energy and personnel costs, regulatory requirements, CO₂ pricing and investments in sustainable and energy-efficient buildings in particular will continue to influence the development of operating costs. At the same time, tenants are becoming more sensitive to the warm rent and thus to transparent and comprehensible cost structures.

The head of the advisory board, Prof. Dr. Anne Harzdorf , emphasizes: "Against this background, active, data-based operating cost management is becoming increasingly important. Digital analysis and benchmarking solutions such as ImmoBench can help to identify optimization potential at an early stage, better classify cost developments and implement cost-effective and sustainable management strategies in the long term."

With the "ImmoBench Market Report", MVDI is pursuing the goal of creating transparency about the structure and development of operating costs and providing housing companies with a reliable basis for comparison for optimising their portfolios. The data is based on the standards of the Geislingen Convention and the Operating Costs Ordinance and is updated annually. The complete market report "ImmoBench 2025 – Development of operating costs of residential buildings in Germany" is available from MVDI. In addition, the market report will be presented at the Real Estate Arena in Hanover on June 10 at 3:45 p.m., Project Salon Hall 4, Booth E46. Interested parties are cordially invited.