Bremen is the cheapest big city in the west with a port, aerospace, automotive and a property market where €3,000 per square metre and a 4.2 percent yield are the rule. Purchasing power sits just below the average, prices far below.
Buy or rent?
23.8 years of rentpurchase price divided by annual cold rentBelow 25 the ratio favours buying: the rent almost covers the mortgage payment on its own.
milinia’s take
- Purchase prices €3,000 per square metre, Schwachhausen and Oberneuland over €4,500, Gröpelingen and Blumenthal under €2,000.
- Transfer tax 5 percent, property tax multiplier 695 percent, trade tax 460.
- Aerospace, automotive, logistics, food: industrial wages under collective agreements, purchasing power index 98.
- The Bremer Haus: the typical terraced houses with basements are the city’s ownership model.
Living
Existing flats cost €3,000 per square metre, in Schwachhausen, Oberneuland and Horn over €4,500, in Gröpelingen, Blumenthal and Tenever under €2,000. New lettings at €10.50 excluding utilities, in the Viertel and Findorff €13. Bremen is the city of terraced houses: the Bremer Haus with basement and front garden is available for €350,000 to €600,000, a form of housing no other big city offers on this scale. The correction since 2022 came to around 8 percent.
Earning
Median €4,100 gross, above that in aerospace, automotive, logistics and the food industry under collective agreements, below in the port and services. Purchasing power index 98. Bremen has the highest economic output per head among the federal states after Hamburg but a social structure with a high poverty rate; the spread between Schwachhausen and Gröpelingen is the widest of the twelve cities.
Taxes and levies
Transfer tax 5 percent. The trade tax multiplier sits at 460 percent, the property tax multiplier after the reform at 695 percent, the highest of the twelve cities, because the heavily indebted state secures its revenue. Church tax 9 percent.
Investing
The gross yield sits at 4.2 percent, in Walle, Findorff and the Neustadt at 4.5, in Bremen-Nord above 5 with higher vacancy risk. With Leipzig and Dresden, Bremen is the city for investors with a yield target; demand is stable, prices moderate, the Überseestadt as the largest development area attracts newcomers. Risks: state debt, structural change in the port, social segregation. Whoever diversifies takes Findorff and Walle, not Gröpelingen.
milinia’s view
Bremen is Hamburg for half. Whoever wants northern Germany, water and yield without paying Hamburg prices finds here the sums that do not add up in Hamburg.
Try it yourself
Mortgage CalculatorPrice, federal state, equity, rate and repayment: monthly payment, closing costs and remaining debt after the fixed-rate period.Gross to Net Calculator 2026Tax class, children, church tax, health insurer surcharge: what is left of your German gross salary, monthly and per year.Share
