Overview
- New Mieterbund data show renters increased by roughly three million in five years, with 52.8% of the population—about 44 million people in more than 20 million households—now living in rented homes.
- About six million renters are extremely overburdened, paying over 40% of income for housing, and surveys find 29% fear future unaffordability while 16% worry about losing their home.
- Housing quality has deteriorated, with around 16% of people living in homes with defects such as damp or mold—up from about 12% three years earlier—and overcrowding particularly affects families and low‑income households.
- Mobility is constrained because new‑letting offer rents are significantly higher than existing rents, pushing costs sharply higher after a move and reinforcing a lock‑in effect.
- The government points to measures such as a building ‘turbo,’ an extended rent brake and a tenancy‑law commission, while the Mieterbund presses for tougher curbs, action against rent gouging, tighter rules on index and short‑term rentals, and a program to build roughly 60,000 affordable units annually to double social housing by 2030; a separately reported draft on gas‑network phaseouts has also raised concern about modernization‑linked rent hikes.