To mitigate the city’s housing crisis, the Berlin district of Neukölln has announced a plan to ban furnished flats leased on short-term rental contracts.
The southeastern Berlin district of Neukölln has announced plans to ban short-term, furnished properties in certain “milieu protection areas” to shield existing tenants from extreme rent hikes and curb gentrification.
According to Neukölln’s district authorities, temporary lets only serve people who can afford to pay significantly higher rents than tenants already living in the neighbourhood, which puts locals at risk of displacement.
The five milieu protection areas are primarily located in northern Neukölln and include the neighbourhoods of Körnerpark, Rixdorf, Schillerpromenade, Flughafenstraße/Donaustraße and Reuterplatz.
South of the Ringbahn, Hertzbergplatz/Treptower Straße, Silbersteinstraße/Glasower Straße, Germaniapromenade, Britz and Gropiusstadt would also be protected.
“Contracts for short-term, furnished accommodation exploit loopholes in tenancy law and demand horrendous sums,” district councillor Jochen Biedermann (Greens) said in a press release. “This can quickly amount to rents of 3.500 euros for 80 sqm. This is not unusual in Neukölln.”
Neukölln isn’t the only district taking action, with Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf having introduced “milieu protection areas” in 2024.
The news from Neukölln comes in the same week as Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) called for harsher sanctions on those breaching the country’s rent brake law, which regulates how much landlords can charge for properties.
“You put a chair in there, and Bob’s your uncle, the rent brake no longer applies,” the mayor said at a community meeting in Berlin-Tempelhof. “This can’t be right, it’s not okay.”
Wegner reiterated his push for the CDU/CSU-SPD coalition government to address the rental crisis at a federal level, suggesting that the city state of Berlin bring an initiative to the Bundesrat, which could force the topic onto the Bundestag floor.
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