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Germany proves that private renting can work better than it does in Britain
(www.theguardian.com)
Wait, we are the model? What is the world coming to?
this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
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Here in New Zealand renting is horrible compared to renting in Germany. You can't hang up anything, most places are cold and damp but still expensive. Then there are regular inspections that are quite invasive where an agent takes photos of the whole apartment or house. Germany is paradise compared to that.
To go on a more broad rant, there are many things awry in Germany and it is disheartening to hear that Germany still manages to be world-leading in many areas.
Do you think your election system is bad. Actually, those many areas in your country are world-leading because voters have more power than other places.
Our voters have the choice of picking who gets to pull our leg at our expense for the next 4 to 5 years. Very powerful indeed.
At least you get to choose!
Yes, but the choice is largely an illusion. It's a bit like reaching into a clogged toilet to pick your favourite turd.
Yeah but look at Japan. We here have got the same political party (LDP) for like 80 years, no matter what we do. Even when the LDP declared an election "loss", we still got an LDP cabinet. At least literally 90% of the time.
In Germany this isn't too dissimilar as you might think, except it's usually switching between the Union and SPD, and they often are part of the same government coalition as well.
It's the same in Australia, plus you can basically be kicked out any time if the landlord decides they want to use the house for something else or just up the rent. Renting in Australia is highly precarious.
Cost or supply are one thing, but Germany definitely has strong tenancy rights.
Cyprus likes to pride itself as having strong tenancy rights too, but it's not even half of what I enjoy in Germany. I didn't even have to get permission to hang a picture on the wall.
Wait what? People can not hang pictures without their landlord's permission in other countries?
Where German rental contracts say "any alterations need to be reverted for handover", rental contracts where I originally come from say "any alternations are forbidden without the express permission of the lessor".
Though, you typically also make a deposit at the beginning, which you can either get back if you leave the place in a close to the original state, or leave it with the landlord to pay for the work needed.
Not being able to do anything without explicit permission sounds wild though, and potentially also annoying for the landlords.
It's crazy if you think about it. All furniture warns in the manual that it should be fixed on the position with a screw. Because otherwise, you might die in case of earthquakes here.
They don't allow putting a screw into the wall...
That's all nice and all, but tenancy rights are kind of moot, if you can't afford a reasonably sized apartment or even find anything at all.
No, not really. They aren't moot.
Welcome to the UK where the same rental would be twice the price without any security or rights to your place.
Renting is fucked basically everywhere, but in Germany it's less fucked than most places, if you can believe it.
The only real tenant rights are not being able to be kicked out for no reason and legal protection of children. That's about it.
Landlords still can and will raise your rent irresponsibly and add any kind of extra cost to your rent. All that without providing anything more.
As a German, it's hard to imagine that the German rental model is an improvement to anything. It's horrible. Private landlords honestly stuck even more than corporate ones. Lots of people who feel entitled to put whatever restrictions they want on tenants, regardless of the law. Racism/favorism are rampant, people are literally paying for appointments to just look at apartments and also to be favored in the selection process.
It's bad.
I Moved from Germany to the UK a little over a year ago.
The UK (at least London) is soooooooo much worse as far as renting goes. I rented a few places in Germany in a couple different cities and every place had some annoyances, but I just wasn't prepared for what a free-for-all shitshow it is in the UK.
Literally hundreds of people coming to viewings for a single place. Landlords can basically raise rents whenever they feel like it and force you out. The places are generally absolutely terrible quality with very little incentive to improve things. I had places trying to force 3+ year contracts with no break clause. I've never experienced so many colleagues constantly having issues with "the landlord raising rents by 30% and when we refused or tried to negotiate we got forced out". Then you have to scramble to find a place in a month.
They price everything based on number of bedrooms rather than size, so landlords are incentivized to subdivide flats into multiple units and minimise space. A 4-bed flat-share with no living room? Fairly standard, even for working professionals.
Plus, after you pay the extortionate rents the TENANT pays the taxes (council tax).
I encountered issues in Germany with renting (particularly when I first moved there) but the German situation would be a HUGE improvement for most of the UK
Germans typically stay far longer in their rented homes
Yeah, partially because you can not find anything new at nearly the same price
, which are cheaper
For those with old contracts, Berlin for example is at 13€/m^2 for new rentals. With a median household income of 2117€/month that would be a 54 m^2 appt for one household assuming you spent 1/3 of your income on rent.
(All of that even assuming you can find an appartment at all)
Berlin for example is at 13€/m^2 for new rentals.
For new rentals? If you find one for that price let me know. Would be a free money glitch.
Its the average for Q1 23: [https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/535119/umfrage/mietpreise-auf-dem-wohnungsmarkt-in-berlin/](statisa 2023)
The problem with statistics like this is that you dont know what exactly the area is. Berlin is HUGE, so there are lots of flats on the market which are feasible. You might be able to find a flat in Kleinmachnow, Spandau or Wilhelmshagen for cheap, but if you are studying or working in Berlin you usually search in the city center and rents there are waaaay higher than 13€/m².
13 euros means a 54 sqm flatwould cost 702 euros cold. That's impossible to find unless you know someone and they directly pass you their contract. The market is pushing closer to 20 sqm. So I'm stuck in my 8 year contract forever.
Wait, renting works in germany? How is it working?
For Landlords, especially corporate ones, very well, I've heard.
true.
My experience with a private landlord in germany is not good. We spent months trying to get them to answer on a question on the windows; can we fix the blinders ourselves or do they want us to use some contractor? No answer. Calls, whatsapp, letters, no answer. We contact the tenants union which said that they can sent a proper legal letter they have to reply to, the lawyer at the union also added that we will use a contractor and take it out of the rent. Now we got a letter back, from their lawyer, no answer on what we should do, just a threat that they will sue us if any rent will go missing. We just gave up.
Let them sue, they will lose. It's an empty threat meant to deter you
Actually it seems to depend on what's broken: https://www.mietrecht.org/kleinreparaturen/ist-ein-defekter-rollladen-oder-rollladengurt-eine-kleinreparatur/
But there are precedent cases. If it's not a small repair ("Kleinreparatur"), you are good to go
That's not a high bar.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Millions of German renters belong to tenant organisations, affording them greater influence over landlords, and there have been limits on in-tenancy rent rises.
The UK recently surpassed Norway to become the European country in which the greatest proportion of households now have to spend more than 40% of their disposable income on mortgage and rent – what economists call “housing overburden”.
It is a phrase that does not quite do justice to the life-limiting impact of in effect spending close to half your time at work toiling for your landlord, leaving less for leisure, making plans for the future and for retirement.
And that is before we consider London, where nearly one in three people live in private rented homes, and the best apartments are more expensive a square foot than any city in Europe – including Paris, Rome and Amsterdam, according to the property agent Savills.
In Lisbon, workers such as Margarida Custódio are living with the consequences of deregulation, a pandemic-era drive to attract “digital nomads” and more holiday rentals.
And there are signs of a solution to Britain’s rent problem in Austria, where a quarter of homes are social housing, compared with 17% in England and Wales, and 23% in Scotland.
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