Germany's Rising Rents

Germany is a tripartite state when it comes to increasing rents. In southern Germany rents rise much faster than wages. In eastern Germany renting a property costs less and less relative to income. Only in parts of western Germany are wages and rents developing at almost the same pace.

The Berliner Morgenpost has mapped Where rents are rising faster than wages in Germany. German regions are colored on this interactive map to show how much rents rose between 2014 and 2018 compared to the rise in wages over the same period.

Between 2014 and 2018 gross wages rose by 9.4 percent. In the same period rents rose by 8.5 percent. So in Germany overall wages have outpaced rents and renting a property has become relatively cheaper. However there are large regional differences in rent increases. Southern Germany has seen rents mostly increasing faster than wages. For example in Munich rents rose by 19.7 percent and wages by only 10.9 percent over the mapped period.

In Eastern Germany renting is becoming relatively cheaper as wages have risen faster than rents. For example in Erzgebirgskreis wages rose by 17.4 percent while average rents only rose by 3.5 percent. In eastern Germany Berlin is the only exception to relatively cheaper rents. In Germany rent increases have actually outpaced rising wages.