Anyone looking for a new apartment in Berlin will have to pay more and more for it. The asking rents for new apartments in Berlin rose by 20 percent last year - to an average of 19.45 euros per square meter of living space. This emerges from the living barometer presented on Wednesday by the Internet portal Immoscout24. Rents for new buildings then rose more sharply in Berlin than in any other of the eight largest cities in Germany.
“Berlin remains the most tense rental market in Germany,” notes Immoscout. Only Munich, which has been very expensive for years, is ahead of Berlin with an average asking rent of 24.11 euros per square meter for new buildings. In Munich, asking rents for new apartments rose by 12.8 percent last year.
As an expert in the real estate market, I see the rising asking rents for new apartments in Berlin as another sign of the ongoing shortage of affordable housing in the city. The average asking rent of 19.45 euros per square meter for new apartments represents a significant increase of 20 percent compared to the previous year. This sharp increase is worrying and could impact the real estate market in various ways.
First of all, this could lead to a further worsening of the housing shortage as fewer and fewer people can afford the rising rents. This could lead to increased demand for cheaper housing in peripheral areas or surrounding cities, which in turn could lead to an increase in property prices in these areas.
Furthermore, due to the high demand for new apartments, investors and construction companies could increase their construction activities in Berlin in order to benefit from rising rents. This could lead to more new construction projects being realized in the future to meet demand. On the other hand, tenants could increasingly opt for alternative forms of living such as sharing concepts or co-living in order to avoid rising rents.
Overall, it is clear that the rising asking rents for new apartments in Berlin are an indication of the ongoing housing shortage in the city and could have various effects on the real estate market and the living situation of citizens. Urgent measures are needed to counteract this development and to secure affordable housing in Berlin in the long term.