The rent cap can't stop gentrification
Berlins renting prices are increasing, and laws to prevent landlords from overprising are not helping
Gregorio Tsismenakis lives in Reuterstrasse in Neukölln, Berlin. He came to the city in 2002 from Greece, and since then his rent has increased a lot. Last year, his rent went from 319 Euros per month to 419 Euros, and his apartment is 50 square meters.
He shrugges and puts his shopping bags down, and starts searching for his keys. “My rent is much better now, after I started paying for the gas and water over a private company and not through my landlord" he says. In Neukölln the rent has increased with more than 81% since 2008, according to this years Real Estate market report for Berlin, carried out by the two real estate firms Berlin Hyp and CBRE.
This June a rent cap law was enforced in Berlin, and it was supposed to stop the landlords from charging more than 10 % of the average rent in the area, but it has not been easy.
The municipality’s department for housing looks at the type, size, surrounding green areas, location, energy equipment and facilities to regulate the value of the apartments. Other costs such as the supply of heat and hot water are not taken into account in forming the local comparative rent, explains Pia Burger, press contact of The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety.
After five years, it’s up to the state to determine if the rent cap is still needed, depending on if the area still suffers from a pressured real estate market.
Parents and Seniors continues their city life
An eldery and trendy coupple, in Neukölln where childrenseats on bikes and Vintageshopes are becoming more frequent.
There has been a demographic change when it comes to who wants to live in the city, says Pia Burger.
“Parents don’t want to move out to a house on the countryside anymore, they want their kids to grow up in the urban environment” she says.
She also adds that elderly people wants to live near shops and services, and have access to public transport.
In 2008 the prices for renting in Berlin, grew higher and higher, and in 2009 it was a dramatic increase. Burger said at the same time as there was a high demand for building new apartments, few projects had started. The biggest problem however were landlords renting out the apartments for an unproportional high price. Especially apartments in low income neighborhoods were being rented out for a higher price than what was normal in the area.
source: CBRE
Gregorio Tsismenakis is a middle aged man and lives by himself, he has a low income, and is not like the other people in his building at the moment.
“Over the last years, I’ve gotten new neighbors all the time. They are young and they share the flat which makes them able to pay more, as they pay per person. They make a lot of noise all the time, and I don’t get to know them, since they live here so briefly” he says.
Tsismenakis is not worried of being pushed out of his apartment, as he trusts his landlord.
But the lawyers Wibeke Werner and Reiner Wild from Berlins Tenant Association stresses that many Berliners have contact them with concern
.
Why rent out for less when you can have more?
The market is pushing up the prices, and when a landlord can get 500 Euros form three people each for a flat, they will of course choose them instead of the couple who only pays for themselves, says Wibeke Werner. She doesn’t think students who move in to the neighborhoods are the ones to blame, even though they are pushing out the low income families. “This is a policy problem, where the government has to take responsibility” she says.
Little information for the tenants
Werner says the rent policy needs to be fixed, but this law has not been effective.
“Actually many tenants don’t even know about this law.” Information has been put out on Berlin Tenants associations websites, but even if the tenants know their rights, it’s hard to gain them.
It’s the tenant’s responsibility to get the documents from the landlord which proofs that the price is correctly regulated according to the local average rent. If they want to know what the former tenants payed, they have to find them personally, Werner explains.
“Most tenants are anxious to get in trouble with their landlord, when there is such a big demand the landlord can just find someone else to rent it out to” she says.
Also if they do get the proof that it’s not regulated correctly, they have to go to trial, which most low income tenants can’t afford, she says.
Another factor is that if the apartment was already rented out for over 10 % to the former tenant, they don’t have to adapt to the new law. If a landlord managed to get a high rent, no one can force them to charge less for their property, explains Burger from The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety.
Renovating a building can pressure everyone to move out
Many of the old buildings in Neukölln are in bad shape because they haven’t been maintained over the years. As a tenant you have to notice your landlord if anything needs to be repaired in the apartment, but the shared facilities and the facade is fully the landlord’s responsibility to pay attention to.
However Berlin’s tenants association reports that many tenants experience that their landlords don’t care to fix these things, and in the end, they all have to move out. This is because 11 % of the expenses from the renovation have to be paid by the tenants over the rent.
Only luxury
There are some new buildings being built in the neighborhoods, but they are not targeted for tenants searching a low to moderate standard. “It’s very difficult to motivate private investors to build apartments for a low standard, when their aim is to make money” says Wibeke Werner.
In June when a building project was being build, the local residents were protesting
“Right now we have three-four of this building projects going on in Kopenhagenstrasse in Neukölln” says Reiner Wild from the Berlin Tenants Association. However the new residents with a higher income, can also provide positive effects to the neigborhood.
A mix of culture and tax money
Close to the city hall in Neukölln, a symbol of the history when Neukölln used to be a sovereign city, is Ali El Moustapha’s hard ware shop. He is a refugee from Palestine, and prefers to speak Arabic to German.
He has the store along with his son, and he can understand why so many people wants live in Neukölln. “It is very multicultural here, with people from all over Europe and the middle east. In this neighborhood people perform a high level of tolerance for other cultures and religions.”
Professor in Sociology Lena Magnusson Turner from the University of Oslo, has been researching gentrification and housing polictis for many years.
“For a long time gentrification has been looked upon as solely negative, but one has to look at the positive effects of it too” she explains.
She says it can also be looked upon as “New Urbanism” when middle class move in to the areas populated by low income residents’. “With their tax money they will contribute to the welfare service in the area, this can contribute to better opportunities for the people living and growing up in the neighborhood” she says.
But it has to be controlled by the state, otherwise you will end up with the London version, where neighborhoods have been taken over by the over class.
“Berlin needs more stately involvement in the housing market, because certain landlords do not think to consider the needs of the tenants, they just want to make money” she says. Ersun Karadunman is one of the Berliners who appriciate these effects of Gentrification: