The past decade has seen rents in Berlin reach new heights. Now, the city has seen an 18,3 percent increase in just one year a new survey has revealed.

Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and Neukölln see biggest rent rises

A survey by the bank Berlin Hyp and brokerage company CBRE has found that rents in Berlin increased by 18,3 percent in 2023, compared to the previous year. For new rental contracts landlords in Berlin were demanding an average of 13,60 euros cold rent (excluding the cost of utilities) per square metre.

The districts of Neukölln and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg were the two neighbourhoods that saw the largest rent increases compared to 2022, with rent hikes of 23,5 percent and 23,2 percent respectively.

This was followed by Spandau (19,1 percent), Lichtenberg (18,9 percent), Mitte and Pankow, both of which saw landlords raise rents by 18,5 percent.

Will building more Berlin houses solve the problem?

The CBRE and Berlin Hyp report predicts that demand for housing in Berlin will only increase in the coming years as more people move to the city.

According to the survey, there are currently 220 housing construction sites in Berlin, which should supply the capital with 34.940 new houses. These building projects are increasingly spilling out into the city’s suburbs, with just 15,1 percent of new builds in 2023 being constructed with the S-Bahn Ring.

Rising construction costs mean the German government is currently reluctant to build enough housing to meet growing demand, and last year Berlin’s CDU / SPD coalition cut back on its housing policy, changing its target for an average of 20.000 new houses per year - including 5.000 social housing units - to a non-binding “soft target”.

What's more, nationwide figures show that building more homes to meet demand does not automatically lower rents, with many tenants moving into newly-constructed houses paying even more than their neighbours in existing accommodation with older contracts. For new builds, the nationwide average rent lies at 11,01 euros per square metre, compared to 8,01 euros for all kinds of housing.

Alternative solutions to decrease rents include socialising more housing in Berlin, the raison d'être of the Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen campaign which is set to gather steam once more with a new referendum. A 2023 study by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation found that expropriating housing could decrease Berlin rents by 16 percent.

75 percent of Berlin landlords are charging illegally high rent

The CBRE and Berlin Hyp survey follows an announcement last week that the German government would extend the nationwide rent brake (Mietpreisbremse) until 2029. However, critics of the law, including the German Tenants’ Association (DMB), say that the current version is too flimsy to protect renters sufficiently.

Under the law, if a landlord charges a tenant more than 10 percent more than the legal amount determined by the rent index (Mietspiegel), the tenant is entitled to a rent reduction and refund of any overcharged rent they have already paid.

Speaking to The Local, Daniel Halmer, CEO of Conny - a company which helps tenants secure rent reductions if they find they are being charged illegally high amounts - said that despite the existing law, 75 percent of Berlin tenants are paying too much each month.

If you think that you are being charged illegally high rent in Berlin you can enter your address into the Mietspiegel database to find out more. If you are being overcharged, it may be worth contacting the Berlin Tenants’ Association (Berliner Mieterverein) to find out if you are entitled to a rent reduction.

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