How much does the average resident in Germany spend on housing?

Residents in Germany are spending a significantly higher proportion of their income on housing costs than those in neighbouring countries, figures from the European Union’s statistical office (Eurostat) have revealed.

Average German household spends 24,5 percent of wages on housing

According to Eurostat, people in Germany spend an average of 24,5 percent of their income on housing costs, be it rent, mortgages or utilities. The Eurostat figures were revealed following an information request filed by the populist party, Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW).

These figures mean that the average cost of housing in Germany is 5,3 percentage points over the EU average (19,2 percent), and make Germany the third-most expensive country across the bloc for housing expenses. Only in Denmark and Greece do people spend a larger proportion of their income on housing, 26,3 percent and 35,5 percent respectively.

However, the situation is more extreme in some regions of Germany, where people are living in or at risk of poverty. In these regions, people are paying an average of 43,9 percent of their income on housing costs.

Wagenknecht calls for nationwide rent cap

In response to the findings, Wagenknecht has called on the German government to implement a nationwide rent cap (Mietendeckel) and increase the number of housing units built in the public interest, rather than for profit. “Housing in Germany is an impoverishment policy for a large share of the population,” Wagenknecht told the AFP news agency.

“The fact that people pay considerably less for housing in countries like France or Austria shows that things can be different,” she continued. Wagenknecht defected from die Linke in 2023 to found her self-titled party, which has since toed a left-leaning line on social issues and a right-leaning line on migration.

While the state of Berlin implemented a rent cap in January 2020, the policy was deemed unconstitutional in Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court and overturned in April 2021.

Since then, the housing crisis in the capital and across the country has only become more fraught. Uncharacteristically for his centre-right party, in November 2024, Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) also called on the federal government to implement a nationwide rent cap.