FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - In real estate stocks, investors are betting on Monday that better times will soon return. The European sector was in demand: the Stoxx Europe 600 Real Estate was the sector leader with a rise of 1.5 percent. Its recovery, which began shortly before Christmas, thus continued. Since the December low, it has now already gained 18 percent, significantly more than the European stock market.

Shares in Dax member Vonovia climbed 1.7 percent to 27.51 euros, approaching their 200-day average line, a popular long-term price indicator.

German second-line stocks were even more dynamic: Aroundtown, LEG and TAG Immobilien were among the favorites in the MDax, rising by up to 4.4 percent. Shares in Patrizia rose by 3.3 percent in the SDax and those of the financing service provider Hypoport even soared by 14 percent.

2022 prices in the sector were steeply down for a long time as central banks countered high inflation with significantly higher key interest rates. Analyst Marius Fuhrberg of Warburg Research saw transaction data released Monday by Hypoport, a financing services provider heavily focused on the sector, as further confirmation that "disastrous conditions" currently prevail in the market.

However, Hypoport investors ignored the weak transaction figures on Monday. Warburg expert Fuhrberg looks ahead then also more optimistically and the expects that the market environment in the real estate sector has reached the bottom in the fourth quarter or will reach in the current first quarter. Such expectations have recently been seen as a support for the recovery of the stock markets - especially in the real estate sector. There are increasing opinions that the interest rate spiral will soon reach its peak.

A positive industry voice came on Monday from Bankhaus Metzler on Patrizia: Analyst Jochen Schmitt sees a lot of air upwards with a price target that was increased from the current price level at 11 euros to 14.50 euros. The company's market position and growth profile are not adequately appreciated in the price, is his thesis. He generally praised Patrizia's ambitions to expand internationally. His price target implies a price potential of almost one third./tih/la/mis