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I need to find an apartment

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Re: I need to find an apartment

#191

Post by bluefirebrand »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #182
bluefirebrand wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still not sure renters really have a reasonable expectation of privacy when the place they are living in is listed for rent or sale by someone else. In most places renters are only granted 24 hours notice to have complete strangers come walk through their living spaces while the space is shown off. They have no real right to refuse to allow that. If people start knocking on their door asking to come look at the p…

>I'm still not sure renters really have a reasonable expectation of privacy when the place they are living in is listed for rent or sale by someone else In some EU countries they do. The landlord need to ask permission to have visitors at your place and the tenant has the right to refuse.

The tenant has the right to refuse to have the home shown when they are moving out and the landlord is trying to find new tenants? How about maintenance workers fixing appliances or something? That seems pretty hard to believe.

Are you sure the tenant isn't just allowed to refuse "a time slot" but also must offer alternatives?

Re: I need to find an apartment

#192

Post by Etheryte »

tromp wrote: post #119
Etheryte wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who just jumped through all the hoops to find a new apartment, the pain is real. I think the main issue is that the incentives are misaligned from the perspective of the seeker. Where I'm currently at (the Netherlands), the market is dominated by agents. Using an agent makes sense from the perspective of the apartment owner — they will take care of managing the ads, initial screening, arranging viewings et…

Housing website https://funda.nl is pretty dominant in the Netherlands. Why would you need to search many agent's websites when nearly all inventory shows up on funda.nl ? I find it much preferable to North American sites like https://realtor.ca that think that number of baths is more important than floorspace (which to my utter amazement is often not even available).

You're right in that most listings eventually end up on sites such as Funda, Pararius etc. However, almost all offers go online on an agent website first, oftentimes considerably so. Your milage will vary of course, personally I started using agent sites after calling an ad that had been up on Pararius for 5 minutes yielded the response that the viewing list is already full. Turned out it had already been up on the agent page for a day and well-priced offers go fast in desirable areas. It is worth noting that I live in a very contested area, I would hope life is better in smaller places.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#193

Post by lucb1e »

Actual title: Scraping apartment offers to show them on a map

(since the current title just conveys some general topic of apartment need, with no indication if it's about "my partner died and it's interesting to notice how large a whole house is" or something)

Re: I need to find an apartment

#194

Post by extesy »

ascar wrote: post #94
extesy wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The simple answer is rent control: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-02/berlin...

Would be so much better if you post a reference that's actually accessible without an account or even subscription.

Sorry, I had no idea that there is a paywall. I use the extension[1] that removes majority of paywalls.

[1] https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean

Re: I need to find an apartment

#195

Post by LudwigNagasena »

kreetx wrote: post #55
aaaaaaaaata wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is getting lucky walking down the street "creative", exactly?

He perhaps asked every person that walked by? That would be more creative than looking at the post popular ad site.

Harassing strangers is not really something I would encourage no matter how creative it is.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#196

Post by nemo44x »

mschuster91 wrote: post #171
wildmanx wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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…

The prices mainly went up so fast because interest rates in Germany went to 0 and below. Get the central bank rate up to 3% and you’ll see property values crash.

But yes I agree, make living outside cities worthwhile and attractive.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#197

Post by rr808 »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #52
aqme28 wrote: post #34

I'm currently searching in Berlin and the market has become insane. Here's a response I got yesterday: "With more than 1200 prospective tenants, it was really difficult for the landlord to make a decision. Unfortunately, we have to inform you that the landlord has decided on other prospective tenants. Thank you for your understanding! "

Population of Berlin has hardly changed in the past 30 years, it grows at an annual a rate of like 0.2%. How is this madness possible? Edit: There were 3.5 million residents in 1993. It is projected to reach 3.6 million residents in 2029 [1] It's got to be something to do with financial markets and foreign investment 1 - https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/204296/berlin/population

Its a bit tough to talk about nothing changing in 30 years and not talking about unification, which makes it a completely different market. After the war East and West overbuilt Berlin to make it a showcase where economically it didn't attract a lot of people.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#198

Post by nemo44x »

s17n wrote: post #129
wildmanx wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Land value tax solves this

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.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#199

Post by rr808 »

candiddevmike wrote: post #54

Government should provide apartments, free, in the center of the city, for anyone who needs one. Housing should be a human right. You can pay extra for a better place, but then landlords would actually have to compete for your business instead of the other way around.

Its actually interesting to read about housing in the Soviet block. Housing was a right, but in reality long waiting lists, multi generations in cramped apartments and lots of dense blocks. But it kinda worked. I'm not sure how private stand alone housing was allocated.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#200

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #191
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm still not sure renters really have a reasonable expectation of privacy when the place they are living in is listed for rent or sale by someone else In some EU countries they do. The landlord need to ask permission to have visitors at your place and the tenant has the right to refuse.

The tenant has the right to refuse to have the home shown when they are moving out and the landlord is trying to find new tenants? How about maintenance workers fixing appliances or something? That seems pretty hard to believe. Are you sure the tenant isn't just allowed to refuse "a time slot" but also must offer alternatives?

Outside of necessary repairs or maintenance, you can legally refuse unwanted visits from the landlord to the apartment you are paying rent for.

Story time: A couple of years ago, I was looking to buy an apartment and saw one spacious apartment centrally located that was way below market price but had no pictures in the ad. I called the agent and asked when can I visit as soon as possible since there's no pictures. Agent said the old lady currently renting it does not allow visitors inside, that's why there's no pictures. I asked how in the world can you buy an apartment without seeing it? Agent said that's why the owner is selling it below market price. And the charry on top, if you do buy it, you'll be forced by law to keep the current tenant who's paying frozen rent, not adjusted for the past 20 years, until she either decides to levees voluntarily or dies. That's why the owner had to sell below market.

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