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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

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.
mschuster91 5y ago
Your post is bordering on propaganda. First of all: the problem at the core is that Berlin is pretty much built out, there is not much space any more to expand to. Yes, skyscrapers could be a solution, but everyone seriously thinking about this gets invited to look at Frankfurt am Main and then forget about the idea because that city is simply hideous. Skyscrapers are very unwelcome in Germany because of that example, not to mention they need some seriously solid ground to make a proper foundation... and Berlin doesn't have that. Second: that law was enacted because people were fed up with rents going up all the time - including absolutely ridiculous practices like "kalte Entmietung" (aka having construction crews in allll the time to drive out tenants) or charging ridiculous prices and raising rents while the property devolves ever more because the profits from the raised rents are clearly being siphoned off instead of being used to keep up maintenance. Third: People were especially pissed off about the large landlords (Vonovia etc.) which bought their stock at fire-sale prices (literally - the 90s CDU government under Diepgen had left a veritable banking scandal and the Senate was forced to sell everything it had in the early 2000s for cheap) and now raised rent like there was no tomorrow. It was naked and utter greed that turned the public opinion so bad. > 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. Paying rent persistently late is grounds for termination, it's easy to grab an eviction order at a court. Disturbing neighbors... well let's keep it at "having illegal hotels aka AirBnBs as neighbors is way worse". > No reasonable investor finds it attractive to build new rentals in German cities. Result is a shortage. People build like mad wherever they still can and that is the problem. Land values in urban areas exploded - Munich for example had land values double in four years [1] - and the result is that because the land is so expensive, the resulting rental price are going to be exorbitantly expensive as well. In the end the solution is not the market, as the market will over time only serve to evict the weakest of society - and as a result, as we have seen in Berlin and with the Yellow Vests in France, this has the potential to erode trust in democracy itself. The solution is to revitalize the rural areas. Public transit and high-speed Internet access are the key points where the suburban and rural areas across the West have the worst issues - fix that and people will actively move towards these areas instead of all being forced to compete for urban quarters! [1] https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-grundstueckspreis-immobilien-bodenrichtwert-1.4580410 https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-grundstueckspr...

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.

mschuster91 5y ago

Your post is bordering on propaganda. First of all: the problem at the core is that Berlin is pretty much built out, there is not much space any more to expand to. Yes, skyscrapers could be a solution, but everyone seriously thinking about this gets invited to look at Frankfurt am Main and then forget about the idea because that city is simply hideous. Skyscrapers are very unwelcome in Germany because of that example, not to mention they need some seriously solid ground to make a proper foundation... and Berlin doesn't have that. Second: that law was enacted because people were fed up with rents going up all the time - including absolutely ridiculous practices like "kalte Entmietung" (aka having construction crews in allll the time to drive out tenants) or charging ridiculous prices and raising rents while the property devolves ever more because the profits from the raised rents are clearly being siphoned off instead of being used to keep up maintenance. Third: People were especially pissed off about the large landlords (Vonovia etc.) which bought their stock at fire-sale prices (literally - the 90s CDU government under Diepgen had left a veritable banking scandal and the Senate was forced to sell everything it had in the early 2000s for cheap) and now raised rent like there was no tomorrow. It was naked and utter greed that turned the public opinion so bad. > 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. Paying rent persistently late is grounds for termination, it's easy to grab an eviction order at a court. Disturbing neighbors... well let's keep it at "having illegal hotels aka AirBnBs as neighbors is way worse". > No reasonable investor finds it attractive to build new rentals in German cities. Result is a shortage. People build like mad wherever they still can and that is the problem. Land values in urban areas exploded - Munich for example had land values double in four years [1] - and the result is that because the land is so expensive, the resulting rental price are going to be exorbitantly expensive as well. In the end the solution is not the market, as the market will over time only serve to evict the weakest of society - and as a result, as we have seen in Berlin and with the Yellow Vests in France, this has the potential to erode trust in democracy itself. The solution is to revitalize the rural areas. Public transit and high-speed Internet access are the key points where the suburban and rural areas across the West have the worst issues - fix that and people will actively move towards these areas instead of all being forced to compete for urban quarters! [1] https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-grundstueckspreis-immobilien-bodenrichtwert-1.4580410 https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-grundstueckspr...