How did this rent exorbitance come about?
Big cities in particular offer attractive living conditions: good job opportunities, excellent universities and a wide range of leisure activities. As a result, the rush to these metropolitan areas has become ever greater in recent years. The demand for living space has increased steadily - and rents have risen as a result.
What do you pay for your home in this country?
Across Germany, tenants now spend around 30 percent of their net income on housing. Rental costs are highest in cities in southern Germany, Hamburg, Cologne and Jena.
The problem is that household incomes have risen less than real estate prices in recent years.
property prices in recent years.
Where have prices jumped the most?
No other German city has seen rents rise as sharply in recent years as Wolfsburg in Lower Saxony, where comparative rents have increased by a whopping 40 percent. But other medium-sized cities such as Kassel, Ingolstadt and Göttingen have also seen large price increases.
Rents are rising, especially in attractive or economically strong cities where prices have been moderate for years,
explains Michael Kiefer, chief analyst at "Immobilienscout24".
The increase is low in Cologne and Hamburg. Why?
Michael Kiefer expects rents to rise by only 1.5 percent in both cities in the future. The reasons for this are the already prevalent rent exorbitance and the low population growth in both cities.