Overview
- The city surveyed nearly 47,500 households and analyzed about 17,700 apartments from contracts changed within six years, excluding social housing, and the result now serves as the binding reference for rent increases and the Mietpreisbremse.
- Method updates include using the median instead of the arithmetic mean, adding units under 25 m², and a finer classification of roughly 2,400 quarters, which officials say improves robustness but limits time-series comparability.
- The index reveals wide disparities by location, age, and size, from averages of 6.76 €/m² in poorer areas to more than 22 €/m² for large new-builds in good locations, with small pre-1918 units also priced high at 13.77 €/m² in normal areas.
- The Senate portrays the figure as a reassuring signal, whereas CDU and AfD leaders fault the method switch for obscuring trends, and the Mieterverein warns that a 1.12% rise over two years and a 30.3% rent-to-income share show persistent strain.
- Industry groups cite broader datasets indicating similar or lower levels—VNW reports 9.11 €/m²—and argue that high construction costs and too little building, not current rent levels, are the primary challenges.