I wish Berlin would just build more housing instead. For example when I cross the street there is a supermarket. It's a single story building with a huge parking lot around it. Why not make it a multistory building with apartments on top of the supermarket and skip the parking space or put it underground? Why does the city give out building permits for such buildings? There could easily be room for thirty families on that lot. A single parking spot is like 12m^2, two parking spots and three storys above them and you have an apartment for two to three people.
Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
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Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#12I don't even live in Germany or Europe, so why am I happy about this?
Because a better country eventually makes a better world for everyone, and a worse country eventually makes a worse world for everyone.
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#13Will this affect people who have started living in Berlin under the rent cap-system? I hope they won't have to move out all of a sudden, facing sudden, higher rents.
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#14Keep in mind that when they say Berlin's rents are soaring, it's still comparatively cheap for large cities in Germany.
Irrelevant unless compared to local salaries, which as far as I know, are still lower than the rest of German cities.
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#15It is unconstitutional because it treats people unequally. New people will not find any rentable properties, and will have to stay in hotels paying 10x more. It is just another form of xenophobia.
No, it’s unconstitutional because the Berlin government was passing a law which conflicted with federal law (BGB) which regulates rents in Germany.
Also, the Berlin government was retroactively changing (rent) contracts which normally invalidates any contract as this will always put one contract party at an unprecedented disadvantage.
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#16Important to note here is that while the Mietendeckel (rent cap) has been overturned, the Mietpreisebremse (rental price control) is still active. This is a very interesting development though.
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#17Housing situation in Germany for anyone born after 1980 is so fucked.
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#18It is unconstitutional because it treats people unequally. New people will not find any rentable properties, and will have to stay in hotels paying 10x more. It is just another form of xenophobia.
Well, it's not like new people will find affordable housing now...
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#19Well that's very disappointing.
It's not, rent caps are a great idea in principle but in reality it just massively constrains the supply which means that yeah, if you find a place to rent you will pay a "reasonable" rate, but there's 200 people willing to rent any place so when landlords aren't allowed to compete on price they compete on everything else. It leads to insanities like landlords requiring 6+ months of rent upfront, very long contracts, very strict(boardering on abusive) rental terms.......since the demand FAR outstrips the supply as a landlord you can get away with pretty much anything because there are always more people willing to rent.
For those downvoting - look at literally any city that has implemented rent caps and tell me that they are a good idea. Where the standard became asking for 6 months upfront and signing a 3-year-no-exit-clause contracts because the demand is so huge it allows landlords to do that. Is that really a net benefit to people renting?
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#20Well that's very disappointing.
I am happy about it, since I live in Prague (capital of one of their neighbors) and the local green/left was kinda waiting for this to go through.