Every seventh in Germany: rent eats more than half of the wages!

Every seventh in Germany: rent eats more than half of the wages!

Berlin, Deutschland - In Germany there are still serious problems on the housing market. A current survey by YouGov on behalf of the German Press Agency shows that around 15 percent of the population have to spend more than half of their net wages for rent. It is alarming that three percent even spend more than 70 percent of their income for living space. The survey, in which over 4000 people, including almost 2400 tenants, illustrates the tense situation. Only a small proportion of eight percent of the respondents spends less than 20 percent of their net wages for rent, while 50 percent pay between 20 and 39 percent and 17 percent in the range of 40 to 49 percent.

The living conditions are particularly challenging for population groups such as single, poverty -prone people and people with a foreign passport. The situation is more serious in urban areas: here people suffer three times as often from a lack of living space as the residents of rural areas. These findings also come from the survey and complement the data from Eurostat, according to which 11.5 percent of people lived in overcrowded apartments in 2022. Around every ninth has to deal with cramped living conditions.

rising rental loads and lack of housing

The difficult living situation in large cities is still exacerbated by the lack of cheap apartments. It is estimated that around 1.9 million affordable apartments are missing in Germany, including 1.4 million apartments with less than 45 square meters, which are particularly important for single -person households. This gap mainly affects singles with low incomes and large families. The biggest shortcomings of affordable living space can be found in cities such as Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne.

The traffic light government has formulated the goal of creating 400,000 new apartments annually, but this has not yet been achieved. Experts warn of the dramatic conditions: high interest rates and construction costs have led to a drastic decline in completions. From 295,000 in 2022, these could forecast 223,000 in 2023 and only 177,000 in 2024. Housing construction is threatened to almost reach the historical low of 2009.

social challenges and relief options

The financial burdens from rent are considerable in major German cities. Four out of ten city households, that are around 8.6 million people, have to deal with a problematic high rental load. After deducting the rent, almost 13 percent of this tenant households have less than the subsistence level. The gap between income classes also opens: Tenant households of the highest income class have 4.4 times as much net income as the households of the lowest class.

In order to counteract the housing shortage, the authorities rely on instruments such as housing benefit, social housing and the rental price brake. However, their possibilities remain limited to support disadvantaged households. Corona pandemic has also tightened the situation for buyers and tenants because the prices for residential properties did not go back. Suggestions to improve the situation include strengthening public housing and the possible reintroduction of the non -profit organization for housing companies. These measures could help promote the market for cheap living space and to defuse the critical situation.

For detailed information on the current living situation and the challenges on the German housing market, the following links can be attended: Destatis , Boeckler .