LeChamois

Now that wouldn't be much fun, besides, the notion that prices in Japan are currently at their peak just screams out for a strong rebuttle.

  A snapshot, yes, demographics tend to change dramatically every 3 years or so... It might not tell you anything because as demonstrated above you can't read a chart

  What a load of crap...    

If you think you can see the future of real estate prices in a graph ignore this one at your peril...    

@Beth The prevailing rents are calculated based on all rental contracts in the city, not just the new ones. That means the average rents or "Mietspiegel" only rise very slowly. As a new rental contract would typically start out slightly above the rental prices in the Mietspiegel and the landlord can only increase the rent up to this level - and not in line with its increase as you seem to think - it is not possible to increase the rent significantly or even at all for several years in a city like Munich.  

That's what people thought in Japan in the 1980s...    

Berlin is not a capital city in the same way London, Paris or Madrid are. Finance is in Frankfurt, business headquarters are in Munich and everywhere else but Berlin, no team from Berlin has ever won the Bundesliga and its most famous dish is Currywurst. One major factor determining houseprices will be the absence of the next generation of buyers, much like in Spain.