4 ms·

You pretty much have to buy an apartment in Berlin, that's been the case for the past 10 years or so. Landlords took them off the market and put them up for sal

• b20000 5y ago
  why did landlords take their units off the market in berlin? because renting out is no longer interesting?
  • theplumber 5y ago
    Perhaps due the regulation of the renting business.
  • TillE 5y ago
    Dunno, it doesn't really make sense to me. Sale prices were around 20 years' of rent, so it seems like a great asset to hold. I assume they just wanted to cash out on rising prices.
    • OJFord 5y ago
      > Sale prices were around 20 years' of rent That's the same thing as 5% yield right? (Just that that's the way around I usually hear it, might be a regional thing.) That sounds like perhaps the high end of normal range, but not extraordinary?
  • wildmanx 5y ago
    Because a law called "Mietpreisbremse" makes it entirely unattractive to rent out. That's a strict regulation on how much rent you are allowed to take. And that's just the direct financial aspect. Once a tenant lives in your place, it's really hard to get rid of them. Even if they act like total scumbags, trash the place, disturb the neighbors, pay their rent late. No reasonable investor finds it attractive to build new rentals in German cities. Result is a shortage. And because of the shortage, rents skyrocket. And because of that, you have "Mietpreisbremse". And because of that, there is even less rentals and even more shortage. If only anybody would understand that you can't fight the market like that.
    • JumpCrisscross 5y ago
      Berlin politics also seriously discuss seizing landlords' properties [1]. It's stupid. It's illegal. But it makes the potential downside of renting out a home the value of the property. (Or the cost of defending against an illegal law.) [1] https://www.npr.org/2021/12/03/1061333538/berlin-voted-for-the-city-to-seize-apartments-owned-by-developers-to-lower-rent- https://www.npr.org/2021/12/03/1061333538/berlin-voted-for-t...
      • ascar 5y ago
        > Berlin politics Berlin citizens. It's a public referendum. > seizing landlords' properties with 3000 or more units. > defending against an illegal law It's not a law and it will very likely never be one as it's pretty much against the constitution.
      • mikojan 5y ago
        It's not illegal. It's in the German constitution. Land is seized all the time, too. E. g. when the autobahn or mining operations are expanded. Nobody bats an eye there. It's only when corporations shift from being beneficiaries of disappropriation to being the target of such laws that the whole world all of a sudden is outraged.
    • blub 5y ago
      AFAIK it’s not that hard if you find a relative to move into that apartment. But finding that relative may be hard…
    • s17n 5y ago
      Land value tax solves this
      • nemo44x 5y ago
        Higher interest rates solve it. Or a LVT that’s tied to interest rates - as rates go up, tax goes down etc. The problem with property taxes of course are the people paying them are also the people living there. So good luck running on that platform heh.
• abliefern 5y ago
  In Berlin, 100k will get you less than 20m2 somewhere on the outskirts of Spandau