Housing crisis in university cities
Rents for shared rooms in Berlin have risen by 100 euros
October 15, 2023, 6:08 p.m
In German university towns it is becoming increasingly difficult to find an affordable shared room. Student halls of residence are often more affordable – which becomes apparent when you look at the long waiting lists. The student union describes the situation as a “blatant grievance”.
The Bavarian capital Munich and the federal capital Berlin are still the most expensive places to study in Germany at the beginning of the 2023/2024 winter semester. This is reported by the newspapers of the Funke media group, citing a study by the Moses Mendelssohn Institute, which specializes in real estate research, and the Internet portal “wg-gesucht.de”.
According to this, an average of 750 euros per month including additional costs are now charged for free shared rooms in Munich. That’s 50 euros more compared to the previous year. In Berlin, the average asking rent for shared rooms rose by 100 euros within a year to 650 euros per month. Within ten years, rental prices in this segment in Berlin have almost doubled. In third place among the cities with the highest rents for shared rooms is Frankfurt am Main, where the average rent is now 630 euros. A year ago it was 580 euros. This is followed by Hamburg with 600 euros (previously 536 euros) and Cologne with 570 euros (previously 510 euros).
Long waiting lists at student halls of residence
Even publicly funded student halls of residence can only make a limited contribution to easing the housing markets in university towns. According to a current survey by the German Student Union from eleven popular cities, as of October 10th, more than 32,000 young people were on the waiting lists for a place in a dormitory at the student unions there. Around half of them – more than 12,000 in Munich and the surrounding area and more than 3,000 in Berlin – are in the two most expensive cities alone.
The Secretary General of the German Student Union, Matthias Anbuhl, said: “The lack of affordable housing for students in university cities has been a blatant grievance for decades, a structural deficit in the German university system and a social problem.”