Renting in Germany: haves and have nots

Photo by Felix Neudecker on Unsplash

Dear Reader,

One issue that has barely made the headlines during the election runup is the cost of living crisis - in particular, the soaring cost of housing.

This has annoyed Lukas Siebenkotten, head of the German Tenants' Association, who thinks that migration is getting far too much attention.

“Rising rents are pushing more and more households to their breaking point. Half of tenants in large cities are afraid that they will no longer be able to pay their rent in the future,” he said this week.

In that spirit, this week’s newsletter takes a look at the crisis in Germany’s rental market and asks: just how bad is it… and can it be solved?

The first thing we need to understand is that Germany is a country of tenants.

Whereas most other Europeans own the roof over their heads, Germans prefer to move into a home that someone else (more often than not a company) has the deeds to.

Homeownership in Europe ranges from two thirds of all households in France to c…