Cologne is champion in retail

Properties in the city of Cologne are getting more and more attractive; capital investment has high rates of return and little risk, as a rating-agency found out.

Concerning the retail properties, Cologne is number one in Germany. The Bad Homburg rating-agency "Feri Rating & Research" presented their valuation of the Cologne estate market. The company checked possible profits and risks of estate investments in 67 german locations. "Cologne is the champion in retail", says Wolfgang Kubatzki of the Feri agency. Regarded aspects are the population´s increase of income, the increase of retail´s sales volume and the increase of rental costs. Concerning potential income and risks Cologne has a extraordinary good standing in retail estates. The demand of chain companies for large stores in the city is enormeous, as the analysis found out. This is caused by the number of tourists and the increasing purchasing power of the population. "The per-capita income is above the german average", says Kubatzki.

International request

The economic power of Cologne is remarkable, nationwide the city is amoung the top five. "The service sector is very distinctive". This is relevant for the economic increase. Besides this, Feri forecasts a stabilizing increase of population beyond the nationwide average throughout the next years. Office and living estates are also coming up. "But Cologne has still some backlog demands", says Kubatzki. Nevertheless the investments in commercial properties are increasing: in 2006 the investments have been 1,5 billion, this is twice as much than the year before. Hanno Weiß, executive director of real-estate-section of Hamburg investment company "Lloyd", which owns commercial properties in Cologne-Lindenthal, names the reasons for this: "To us, Cologne is a top location with low risk and high rates of return", the valorization is seizable. Especially international investors are more and more interested in the Cologne estate market. As Feri figured out, in the meantime 50 % of the investment comes from foreign countries.