There is something special about the first place you move to after leaving home. For me that was Berlin. It has been a joy to learn more about the housing markets of the city and country that have hugely influenced the way I think about places.
German real estate is striking for the sheer size of its lettings market, with less than 50% owning their homes. In Berlin it is even less, at around 15%. This has transpired in a context of strong tenant protections and regulations which give assurances often only possible in other countries through ownership. Yet there are also notable challenges with this, namely where new investment comes from when assets can be used less flexibly and very high building standards make development expensive.
A key controversy surrounds the Mietpreisbremse, or ‘rental break’ that puts limits on rental increases. The law only applies to homes built before 2014, with new build properties exempt. This has created a ‘locked in’ effect where renters hold on to existing contracts on lower rents, widening the gap between existing and new rents.
The popularity and success of Genossenschaften, or housing cooperatives, is also fascinating. This joint ownership model sees members pay a fee for a home with a highly secure tenure. Decisions are made democratically, while profits are invested back into the building to maintain high housing quality. This also comes with drawbacks, including the ability to expand slowly and find people with appropriate knowledge to found and grow them. But they provide an important alternative that is underexplored in the UK.
In terms of architecture, I’ve always been utterly enamoured by the Berlin Mietskasernen. These midrise urban tenements, built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, are beautifully generous with their high ceilings, large rooms, vast windows, sheltered balconies, and often intricate facades and stairwells. Their internal courtyards provide a semi-private space for the block, sometimes featuring little gardens (and a good place to store your bike!) They also allow for higher levels of density, with dynamic streetscapes offering, cafes, bars, restaurants, and other amenities on the ground floor.
It is interesting to see the transformation of the Mietskasernen from being once reviled, due to their overcrowding and unsanitary conditions, to highly desirable places to live, similar to Victorian or Georgian terraces in the UK. Policies of ‘careful urban renewal’ in places like Kreuzberg managed to upgrade conditions while maintaining the community and liveliness of the neighbourhood, providing important lessons today to improve housing in a social and environmentally sustainable way.
