"I check the ads every day", says Sebastian. He lives with his wife Nicole and their four children in a three-room apartment in Munich. The six of them have 75 square meters of living space, with only one nursery, and it is too small - 10 square meters, reports German public broadcaster ARD.
At night, one of the parents sleeps with two children in the bedroom, and the other with the other two in the nursery. "We would like to be alone sometimes, but we are always with the children - all the time", says Nicole.
Nicole and Sebastian's children are between the ages of 4 and 13. And the older they get, the more the problem worsens. Once they hit puberty, it will simply be impossible, says Nicole.
The family has been looking for a larger apartment in and around Munich for eight years and has been applying for housing regularly - at least once a week. But they have not yet found an apartment that is large enough for six people and affordable, according to the ARD.
20 euros per square meter: desperately high rents in Germany
The reason for this is the shrinking housing market in Germany, which is increasingly becoming a burden for tenants - especially in city centers. If in 2012 a square meter in a rented apartment in Munich cost 11.40 euros, in 2024 it will already be almost 20 euros (19.79 euros per square meter, excluding overhead costs), according to data from the Empirica research institute and the Value AG stock company. This represents an increase of more than 70 percent, we read further in the publication.
The trend is similar in other large German cities. For example, since 2012, rents in Frankfurt am Main have increased by 52 percent, in Düsseldorf by 55 percent and in Stuttgart by almost 70 percent. The increase is greatest in Berlin, where the price per square meter for "cold" rent, i.e. excluding overhead costs, has risen by around 130 percent since 2012.
There are several reasons for this development in the German rental market, especially in large cities. On the one hand, the number of single-person households has increased significantly. While in 1950 they only made up around 19 percent of all households in Germany, in 2022 this share has risen to almost 41%, according to data from the Federal Statistical Office.
In addition, many people are drawn to the city. In 2022, 60 million people in Germany lived in large cities or their surroundings (over 70% of the country's total population). Calculations by the Pestel Institute show that there are 540,000 fewer homes in Germany, and the trend is upward. The reason: too few homes are being built, which leads to higher rents, explains the ARD.
However, the price increase is not the same everywhere: rents are lower in rural areas and in eastern Germany. For example, in 2023 the net "cold" rent (excluding utilities) was between 10 and 11.50 euros per square meter in Nuremberg and between 5.50 and 7 euros in Clausnitz, in the eastern state of Saxony.
Pain threshold: 2,600 euros for a "warm" rent
But leaving Munich is not an option for Nicole and Sebastian. "We built our lives here", says the father of four. In addition, both parents have good jobs in Munich: Sebastian works for an insurance company and Nicole in the city administration. And yet they can hardly afford the rent in Munich. "The situation is desperate", Nicole tells ARD.
Currently, the two of them pay 1,300 euros per month (excluding utilities) for the 75 square meter apartment they rent, which is about 17 euros per square meter. A new home would cost them significantly more, but the family cannot afford to spend more than 2,600 euros a month on "warm" rent - an amount that would seriously exceed 1/3 of the household's monthly income. And experts advise that a maximum of 30 percent of net income be spent on housing.
But even for people with more financial means, finding an apartment is not an easy task, as the case of Darya Strelnikova and Fabio Knez shows. The two influencers, who are also known for their appearances on reality shows, were also looking for a new apartment in Munich. To increase their chances, they had to pay extra for the "Mieter Plus" service, which expands the visibility of their ads. "It's incredible - you're looking for a place to live, but you also have to get a subscription," says Knez.
After a long search, the couple finally managed to find a rental apartment in Munich, for which they paid no more than 1/3 of their net household income. Comparable apartments in the area where they now live cost up to 3,600 euros for "warm" rent.
On average, one invitation to view every three months
Sebastian and Nicole cannot afford such a high rent. The so-called "rent brake" - a kind of rent ceiling - does not help them either. It does not allow the rent to exceed the average rent for a given area by more than 10 percent. But this price "brake" can easily be circumvented - for example, if the owners declare that they have completely modernized the apartment. In such a case, the rent can be set freely, explains the ARD.
However, the amount of the rent is not the only problem for Nicole and Sebastian. The last refusal they received to inspect was because the owner did not want so many people to live in his apartment. The family of six receives an average of one invitation to inspect every three months, although they send at least one inquiry every week. And the search continues.
Author: Lili Hilcher (ARD)