The winter semester began in Germany in mid-October. However, many first-year students have mixed feelings - the excitement of the first days at university is fading away against the background of concerns related to the search for accommodation. In many cities, the number of rooms and affordable housing on offer is extremely insufficient.
This leads to unconventional ideas. At the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, for example, they have urgently started providing temporary accommodation for students, where those first-year students who have not been able to find accommodation can sleep and study, reports German public broadcaster ARD. But these are not rooms or apartments, but dormitories on campus with folding beds. "Please bring a sleeping bag and a sleeping mat", reads the announcement by the institute's Student Council.
In Bonn, the local tourist lodge offers rooms to first-year students for a longer period of time. However, they are not particularly profitable.
For the first time, an average of over 500 euros per student room
The data from the Federal Statistical Office also show how difficult the situation is on the student housing market: on average 53% of a student's income goes to rent.
According to current data from the "Moses Mendelssohn" Institute (MMI), at the beginning of the new semester, rents for a room in a shared student apartment reached record levels: for the first time, students in Germany are paying an average of over 500 euros per month in rent. The exact amount is 505 euros. Even the grants granted to socially disadvantaged students do not manage to cover this amount. The total amount for housing costs under the Federal Study Assistance Act (BAföG) is significantly lower - 380 euros.
"This is about social selection", says Matthias Anbuhl, chairman of the board of the German Student Organization. "Which city I study in should depend on my interests and talents. But because of rents, we see that some cities are becoming unaffordable for students," he added to ARD.
According to the data from the MMI analysis, in 70 of the 88 cities analyzed, the total amount for housing costs under BAföG is no longer sufficient to rent a room in a shared apartment.
In the coalition agreement, the current German government has committed to increasing the money under the study support law to 440 euros. The change should come into effect in the winter semester of 2026/27. "This is 60 euros more than before, which is progress. "But this money is not enough even today, let alone in 2026," the representative of the student organization points out.
Difficulties for trainees too
Rent costs are also unbearable for many of the trainees in vocational training, part of which is an internship in a specific company in the relevant industry. According to the German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB), around 63% of them have problems supporting themselves on the remuneration they receive. "There are trainees who have to work second jobs or rely on money from their parents. This is worrying," says Christoph Becker, federal secretary for youth affairs at the DGB. He is therefore calling for the trainees' salary to be increased from the current 682 euros to at least 834 euros.
A number of measures have been taken in Germany to promote affordable housing for trainees and students. For example, since 2023 the Junges Wohnen (Youth Housing) program has been in place as part of social housing construction. Since then, the German government has been providing the federal states with 500 million euros in subsidies each year for the modernization and construction of dormitory spaces. Next year, the amount is to be doubled.
Such measures can somewhat alleviate the difficult situation on the student housing market. However, they will not solve the overall problem. Therefore, the long-term question is how to stop rents from rising at the rate of the past few years, we read in the ARD publication.
What are the current prices? Where is it most expensive?
The MMI analysis also shows the rent for a student room in a shared apartment in the individual states and cities. The most expensive are the states of Bavaria (603 €), Hamburg (620 €) and Berlin (650 €). And the cheapest - in Saxony-Anhalt (350 €), Thuringia (362 €) and Saxony (377 €).
Since 2019, prices have increased particularly strongly in Berlin (+170 €), Bavaria (+133 €) and Baden-Württemberg (+120 €).
In the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the level of rents reflects the diversity of the cities: while a room in Cologne and Düsseldorf costs an average of 600 euros per month, and in Bonn - 525 euros, in Bielefeld the price is 360 euros.
Author: Julia Wirot (ARD)