It's good for many tenants who have longstanding leases, but rent increases have outstripped salary increases in all the better neighborhoods, by an almost laug

It's good for many tenants who have longstanding leases, but rent increases have outstripped salary increases in all the better neighborhoods, by an almost laughable margin, for more than ten years. A fair amount of that was fueled by long-term tenants getting kicked out by their new landlords who "needed" to reside in the flats. Similar gentrification model to parts of San Francisco. So yeah, some things in Berlin are very tenant-friendly, but finding what used to be a typical flat in, say, Mitte on what is still a typical salary is pretty much impossible. Edit: I get the impression that a lot of new housing is being built in Berlin, but I have yet to see any downward pressure on rents or for that matter purchase prices coming from it. The more they build, the more things cost.