Residential Towers in Frankfurt - Trend Residential High-Rise Buildings in Germany
High-rise residential buildings in Germany are currently the trend. For several years, architects have regularly outdone each other with new designs. Most of the tall residential towers, however, are built in the big cities, in Germany especially in Frankfurt. We are therefore presenting the top 10 tallest new residential towers in Frankfurt on this page.
Basically, residential towers have a bad image in Germany. In surveys about the dream apartment, apartment towers regularly come in last place. This is hardly surprising, because the high-rise residential buildings that were built in the 1960s and 1970s are primarily a feature of social hot spots today. At that time, a lot of living space was to be created quickly and high-rise buildings were considered a modern signal of departure. Therefore, there are high-rise residential buildings in every major city nationwide. The new residential towers, however, cannot be compared with their historical models around 50 years ago. Because in the new apartment towers, light-flooded apartments with chic bathrooms and in good locations are being built. So apart from height, the new residential trend has little in common with high-rise buildings in socially disadvantaged areas.
The first newer residential high-rise was the Skylight built in 2001. After that, another 15 years passed before further residential towers were built in Frankfurt.
High-Rise Residential Trend in Frankfurt
Living in skyscrapers has become a trend, especially in metropolises like New York, London, or Frankfurt, where living is already more expensive than in the countryside. The target group for condominiums in high-rise buildings are not always private individuals, but also investors from abroad. But no matter who the owners are: every ordinary citizen can theoretically rent a high-rise apartment. Because the rent for an apartment in a skyscraper does not always have to be thousands of euros per month. In particular, small apartments and micro-apartments are relatively affordable if you really want to live in a high-rise. Quite a few of these rental units are furnished or even part of a boarding house.
The tallest residential tower in Germany is the Grand Tower, a 180 meter (599 feet) high tower with condominiums in Frankfurt’s European District. In the rising European metropolis, a number of other high-rises have been built or are planned, including ONE FORTY WEST, 160 Park View, EDEN, and Icoon.
In the following overview, the SKYLINE ATLAS presents the new residential towers in Frankfurt, including height information and year of completion.
Top 10 New Residential Towers in Frankfurt
- OmniTurm – 190 meters – 2019 (office tower, includes several residential floors)
- Grand Tower – 180 meters – 2020
- Four Tower 2 – 173 meters – 2023 (under construction)
- ONE FORTY WEST – 145 meters – 2021 (under construction)
- Henninger Turm – 140 meters – 2017
- Vitopia Campus – ca. 100 meters – 2024 (under construction)
- EDEN – 98 meters – 2022 (under construction)
- 160 Park View – 96 meters – 2022 (under construction)
- Blue Horizon – 69 meters – 2019
- TaunusTurm Residential – 68 meters – 2013
You can see from the list that residential towers have only been an investment trend in real estate for a few years. In fact, they are a very new phenomenon.
Rising Property Purchase Prices
The new residential high-rises look chic, but have an unpleasant side effect that is not obvious at first glance: The residential towers have caused rising average selling prices for properties for several years. In addition, foreign property investors who are not competing with local property investors for the same property are also investing in high-rise buildings.
In plain language this means that the trend of having new residential towers negatively influences the statistics of the Advisory Committee for Real Estate Values for determining general average selling prices in Frankfurt. This gives the wrong impression that all apartments are becoming much more expensive, which is not the case. This misinterpreted perception of some studies is often spread unchecked by the media who like to pick up sensational news.
In addition to the high-rise residential trend, there has been another special thing in Frankfurt since 2020: living in skyscrapers above the 150-meters mark. Such condominiums will advance into completely new dimensions for square meter purchase prices (at least for apartments that are located at the top of the tower). These square meter purchase prices will significantly be higher than the previous top prices for luxury properties in Munich and Frankfurt, which will again be reflected in rising average property sales prices. One square meter will quickly cost as much as a new mid-range car.
Real estate purchase prices are rising in Frankfurt for another reason, once again statistically speaking. The city’s 30 percent rule for the creation of subsidized apartments, which is good for the general public, in turn unintentionally increases the cost of privately financed apartments over the long term, since the costs for this are cross-financed.
European District Frankfurt
The following picture was taken in August 2020 on the roof terrace of the Chicago Williams Bar and shows the current construction activity in the European District. Several new residential towers are also linked in the picture.
