Greenwater Capital
Adalbert Pokorski, CEO & Founder, Greenwater Capital GmbH
Greenwater Capital is a specialist in residential property investment and asset management, covering the full process from sourcing and structuring deals through to managing and eventually selling the assets — both new-build and existing housing stock. The firm works mainly for institutional and semi-institutional investors, including setting up and advising on property funds, but also invests its own capital alongside clients. Adalbert Pokorski founded the company and serves as its managing director.
Small-scale private landlords are the backbone of the German residential property market. Around 64% of the country's residential stock is in their hands. But that backbone is starting to crack. German landlords are ageing, and struggling to find a next generation willing to take over. Younger heirs no longer see letting out a flat as an easy source of passive income — increasingly, they see it as a burden: a lot of hassle for very little return. The consequences for the residential market are significant. The private landlord is, quite literally, at risk of dying out.
A pillar under strain
The typical German landlord is 58 years old and owns a single apartment. That profile comes from a survey of around 1,000 private landlords carried out by the German Economic Institute (IW) and Deutschland Immobilien AG in February 2026. The majority — 58% — own just one property, and for most, rental income is a supplementary source of income rather than a primary one: median annual net rental income sits at €5,475, up 53% since 2000. Most take a long-term view — 60% of those surveyed have been letting for at least ten years. According to the Socio-Economic Panel run by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the share of private landlords in the German population has risen by a third since 2010, from 10% to 13% in 2022, driven by low interest rates and a growing housing supply. Regionally, small-scale landlords are more common in smaller towns, where they make up 16% of the population, than in medium and large cities, where the figure was 11% in 2022.
One in two landlords weighing a sale
The scale and fragmentation of Germany's private landlord base is unique in Europe. But in the day-to-day business of professional residential investors like Greenwater Capital, we're increasingly seeing properties come onto the market from heirs of private landlords who simply want a quick sale — not the best possible return. That reluctance to keep letting shows up in the official data too, and there are already signs of frustration among the current generation of landlords, not just the next one.
According to the 2026 Landlord Report from the IW and Deutschland Immobilien AG, only 5% of landlords are under 35 — despite under-35s making up 38% of the German population. As recently as 2024, that figure was more than twice as high, at 11%. A recent PwC survey of private landlords in German cities with more than 500,000 residents found that one in two is considering selling their let property. Rising construction costs — and the maintenance and modernisation bills that come with them — are one reason. So is the on-again, off-again nature of regulation, such as the so-called "Heating Act", along with rent control: nearly three-quarters (72%) believe rent control makes investing in rental housing less attractive.
Properties held by private landlords tend to be well located, well maintained, and popular with tenants.
A difficult environment
These growing burdens and uncertainties are clearly pushing modernisation down the priority list. In the IW survey, 54% of landlords said they had carried out at least one energy-efficiency measure in recent years, whether to cut costs or add value — but 60% have no major refurbishment plans in the pipeline. Better government funding, less bureaucracy and clearer rules could help change that, the survey suggests. What's notable is that regulation itself doesn't appear to be a major factor in landlords' decisions about whether to carry out energy-efficiency work.
It's also worth remembering that maintenance and modernisation is simply a heavier lift — financially and organisationally — for a private landlord than for an institutional owner. Rising modernisation costs, combined with reduced government support (the modernisation levy, for instance, has been cut from 11% to 8%), only make that gap harder to close.
The steady expansion of tenant-protection rules is dampening enthusiasm further, both among today's landlords and tomorrow's. Berlin's rent cap alone cut the city's supply of rental apartments roughly in half. That cap has now been extended to 2029, and alongside it sits the newly passed "Tenancy Law II" package for tight housing markets, plus the ongoing debate over nationalising Berlin's housing corporations — none of which sends a reassuring signal to private landlords.
Institutional investors can help absorb the shock
Over the coming decades, demographic change means a substantial volume of existing housing will pass to heirs — and, given the current climate, much of it is likely to end up on the market. That's where institutional investors come in: an opportunity to acquire residential portfolios at market-driven prices. What's more, properties held by private landlords tend to be well located, well maintained, and popular with tenants. Private landlords often know their tenants personally, and tend to be reluctant to raise rents too often.
Institutional buyers should go in with their eyes open, though: these transactions rarely follow a standard playbook — they tend to be far more individual in character. Investors who can adapt to that, and who bring genuine property expertise even to small-scale portfolios, are well placed to make the most of the opportunity. Keeping up a personal, hands-on approach with both the properties and the tenants can make for a smoother transition — a win-win, both for the investor and for the residential market as a whole.