We use cookies to improve our service for you. You can find more information in our data protection declaration. Rents in Berlin are high, and it's very hard to find a place. Looking for accommodation was a very bad experience for DW columnist Gero Schliess. You still have a suitcase in Berlin? Well, forget it! You have an apartment in Berlin?
You're among the lucky ones. You better stay where you are. Don't move! It can only get worse. Finding a new apartment in Berlin is like winning at the lottery. All I needed to do was to mention the housing issue to get her grumbling. Some of her friends, she claimed, had to spend half of their income on their rent, and no end was in sight to the spiral. My friend works at an artists' agency.
Some time ago, many artists made Berlin their home as they knew that life there was as affordable as parties were awesome. Like me.
Well, in the end it was six months. That was a tough time for me. It almost felt like Berlin didn't have a place for me, as though Berlin didn't want me.
But of course, there are some good reasons for the housing shortage. First of all, there simply aren't enough apartments in Berlin, and the shortage drives up rents and real estate prices. In no other city in Germany did prices go up so dramatically as in the country's capital. Over the last five years, five times more people came to Berlin as new apartments were built. By now, there's a shortage of , apartments. And it's even getting worse. It goes without saying that the present situation is good news for swindlers and frauds.
