The German residential real estate market is on the cusp of a major recovery, as the economy improves and regulation is scaled back to entice investment.

Professor Nico Rottke, CEO of RQI Immobilien, says residential deal volumes are slowly returning to historically average levels and that his firm is on the verge of carrying out more transactions within the value-add space where it operates. Rottke says RQI Immobilien acts as “an early warning system” to indicate that residential market investment activity is now on the upswing.

He argues the German economy is now in the final quarter of its most recent technical recession, which has lasted for three years and is the longest on record since the end of World War II. This is partly due to the German government’s commitment to ease pressure on residential development by reducing regulatory burdens. “Germany has to consistently carry out reforms now, otherwise the markets will not recover from this deep depression