Germany must introduce further rent regulations, says housing minister

Federal Housing Minister Verena Hubertz (SPD) has said that the German government must do more to regulate rents, particularly rents for furnished accommodation.

Hubertz pushes for further rent regulation in Germany

Verena Hubertz (SPD), Federal Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Building, has said that the German government should take further steps to regulate rents in Germany.

While Germany already has a nationwide rent index law (Mietspiegel), which limits the amount landlords can legally charge for certain properties, the law has many loopholes. For example, the rental index rarely applies if landlords let furnished properties for a limited period.

“When someone puts an old sofa in the corner and charges 35 euros per square metre rather than 8 euros, which happens in large cities, it no longer has anything to do with appropriate surcharges,” Hubertz told the Bundestag floor, according to a report by Die Zeit.

The minister called for Germany to introduce “fair rules” which mean landlords are forced to clarify which portion of rent is for the rent excluding utility bills (Kaltmiete) and which portion is a payment for furnishings.

Frankfurt has the highest proportion of furnished lets

The number of listings for furnished rental accommodation has significantly increased in Germany in recent years. “In the past two and a half years, the overall number of furnished properties listed on [rental platform Immowelt] has increased from 4 to 8 percent,” Immowelt press officer Barbara Schmid told Tagesschau in 2024.

According to Immoscout24, in the five largest German cities, landlords charge an average of 10 euros more per square metre for a furnished apartment than for an unfurnished apartment. Frankfurt is the city where the largest proportion of rental apartments on offer are furnished, around 41 percent, but it is in Berlin that landlords are charging the most for furnished lets. 

“With [landlords charging] almost 36,82 euros per square metre for furnished apartments, Berlin is the frontrunner,” Immoscout24 representative Gesa Crockford told Tagesschau. This means that renting furnished accommodation in the capital costs almost twice as much as renting an unfurnished flat.