A report from Eurostat has revealed that people in Germany are paying 24,5 percent of their income towards housing, the third-highest share in the EU bloc.

German residents spend 24,5 percent of income on housing

Housing in Europe, a new report by the European Union's statistical office, Eurostat, has found that people in Germany spend the third-highest percentage of their income on housing costs compared to other EU countries.

Eurostat found that in Germany in 2022, residents were spending an average of 24,5 percent of their income on housing costs, whether renting or paying off a mortgage. Germany came third only to Greece and Denmark, where residents respectively spent an average of 34,5 percent and 25,4 percent of their income on housing.

Germany is currently amid the worst housing shortage it has seen in 20 years, and the German Property Federation (ZIA) expects the shortage to grow to around 700.000 flats and houses by 2025.

Across the political bloc, EU residents spent an average of 19,6 percent of their income on housing, with Malta and Cyprus being the countries where residents pay the smallest percentage.

13 percent of German city dwellers spend 40 percent of income on housing

Eurostat’s report also measured the affordability of housing in Europe using the “housing cost overburden rate” which reveals the percentage of the population paying more than 40 percent of their income towards housing costs.

Here, Germany also came third across the bloc, with 13,5 percent of residents in German cities and 10,5 percent of rural residents spending over 40 percent of their income on housing.

Amid the rising demand for and shortage of housing seen since the coronavirus pandemic, landlords have significantly increased asking rents, particularly in German cities. In the first months of 2023 alone, rents in Germany saw a record increase of 7 percent. Berlin and Stuttgart recorded even more extreme increases of around 8 and 9 percent respectively.

Conny, a company which helps tenants secure rent reductions if they find they are being charged illegally high amounts, estimates that 75 percent of Berlin tenants are paying too much each month, according to the German rent brake law.

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