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Berlin Freezes Rents for 5 Years in a Bid to Slow Gentrification
- Thread starter Deleted member 431
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Bold move.
People with means like to live near where they work in hip well off neighborhoods, in major cities. These individuals can afford to spend more because they or their parents have money, at least in the US.
People with means like to live near where they work in hip well off neighborhoods, in major cities. These individuals can afford to spend more because they or their parents have money, at least in the US.
You mean government intervention into markets can have unintended consequences? I'm shocked!
Yep. If you raise the barriers to providing new housing then you're only encouraging targeting the high end.
It's not expecting the private sector to save anyone, it's understanding how the government can and cannot control or reshape human behavior. They can make housing issues in their cities better or worse. Rent control at best is squeezing a balloon and shifting costs, they don't disappear.
Well to be real here, it was actual bombing and the results of WWII that are still felt to this day in terms of renting prices.
Berlin like so many of Germany's big cities was reduced to rubble and German government had to quickly build housing after the war to get all the refugees a home. A lot of German families lost everything in the war, they had to start from nothing.
Sadly the government often resorted to using building companies and handed of responsibility to the private sector which resulted in Germany having the lowest home owner ship rate and "highest average percentage of gross monthly income paid on rent" in all of Europe. In German cities it is well past the 40% point and 30% is what is deemed as a maximum healthy.
This is a problem 75 years in the making. It could very well be Germany's Yellow Vest movement if nothing is done.
There also should be real estate investment tax for foreign investors buying up houses and flats, if not straight up limits to the number one entity can own.
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Nah, not true. There's a lot of incompetence in Berlin, but I've hardly ever met anyone who visited it and didn't like it.
The german quotes in this thread (the xenophobic parts were left out) were most likely written by some Bavarian with an inferiority complex.
Read this article and tell me with a straight face that rent control is a good thing
When New York State's legislature passed a bill strengthening rent controls on apartments in June, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio crowed that the legislation "will halt displacement . . . and keep working families in the homes they love." Yet one of the biggest eras of displacement in Gotham's history happened decades ago because of rent control. Enacted during World War II, controls squeezed landlords unable to increase rents for maintenance, repairs, and fuel prices until owners began abandoning buildings by the thousands during the late 1960s, driving out middle-class residents, stranding the poor in deteriorating apartments, and creating immense tracts of poverty in formerly stable blue-collar neighborhoods.
When New York State's legislature passed a bill strengthening rent controls on apartments in June, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio crowed that the legislation "will halt displacement . . . and keep working families in the homes they love." Yet one of the biggest eras of displacement in Gotham's history happened decades ago because of rent control. Enacted during World War II, controls squeezed landlords unable to increase rents for maintenance, repairs, and fuel prices until owners began abandoning buildings by the thousands during the late 1960s, driving out middle-class residents, stranding the poor in deteriorating apartments, and creating immense tracts of poverty in formerly stable blue-collar neighborhoods.
Like any policy it can be done badly, I think it has to be coupled with easing other restrictions to housing growth like zoning and building heights to work. One without the other is just another way to entrench disparity and trap low income residents in poor housing they can't afford to leave
Unfortunately this isn't how it's working out. Passing rent control laws is a headline grabbing move and more often than not a cynical move on the civic leader's part. It's good short term to ease tensions from many voters but it will likely hurt in the medium and long term.
Look at California as the current example. They passed rent control statewide last year yet the other bill that would have eased restrictions near transit lines statewide failed spectacularly last week. It's the third time it has done that.
Actually the statistics. 1083 cases of antisemitism in Berlin alone in 2018. Source
Additional fun fact: Berlin is also the city with the highest Syphilis rate.
This. Spend those five years building a massive amount of housing to drive the price down even more and legislate Airbnb so they can't steal all the new construction and you might have a solution. Cities all over the world need to be building UP as fast as possible and fixing their infrastracture to facilitate carless living to handle more people living in high rises.
It should be part of a greater increase in housing being built, but... What is your alternative suggestion then?
Besides, why don't the landlords just get a job~? Couldn't have happened to a more deserving and lazier group of people.
I never thought to think this was happening on a global scale. Does it also have a racial component in other countries?
User Banned (1 Day): Hostility; Prior Related Infractions
Stop all the cringe landlord rhetoric, stop browsing economically clueless tankie subs like chapo and breadtube and stick to what economists say. Listen to the experts, like we kept telling all the Brexiters. You need to build more. Fixing the price does the opposite - it disincentivizes building. I won't repeat what you can find with a single google search. Economists have exhaustively studied rent control and the concensus is crystal clear. Honestly, I sometimes use rent control as a way to probe how one arrives at their decisions. If you are in favor of it, I know for a fact you've never read a study on it or have any clue of its ramifications. Makes me wonder whether your other political views are as thinly founded.
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I can finally stop giving a fuck about this because I found a flat with only 11 days left on the clock before I would've been out on the streets. That was some nerve wrecking shit.
Seriously I don't wish this shit on anyone. It's worse than applying for jobs which I didn't think was possible.
Seriously I don't wish this shit on anyone. It's worse than applying for jobs which I didn't think was possible.
Same for me, but in Lisbon.
Found a flat for 700 euros (which is quite pricey here), and it will only be available on 1 April and I had to pay 6 rents in advance.
I wonder if landlords will just keep their properties empty.
I don't know about Berlin specifically, but big cities with similar problems are full of empty units. The whole problem is housing as real state investment. There are other ways of cracking this.
I don't know about Berlin specifically, but big cities with similar problems are full of empty units. The whole problem is housing as real state investment. There are other ways of cracking this.
when is the Left Wing Coalition Government (Portugal) going to do something about AirBnB and Golden Visas?
Rent control why literally half of my friends can still live in sf
Good. I live in a Vonovia flat for which they tried to raise the rent but then fortunately lost the court case, though not in Berlin. The situation in Germany right now is terrible, with companies willingly worsening living conditions to drive out economically weaker tenants. They covered my house in a curtain for a year for supposed renovations, which actually only took a couple of weeks (I just cut a hole in it where my windows were, but I think other tenants literally couldn't stosslüft for months). They purposefully take their time fixing things like hot water or internet. They scare people into paying fraudulent bills because they are scared of losing their place to live. It's a prime example of capitalism being abused if left unchecked.
You think landlords don't contribute an insane amount of municipal land transfer tax and yearly land taxes?
I freaking love Era's wild take sometimes, yes, let's all blame everything on the rich.
If governments are raising municipal evaluations, thus increasing yearly taxes, why should the landlord pay for it and not the renter?
I just did some math and I was paying 21% of my income to rent when I first moved to the Washington DC area 4 years ago. I've had $10k worth of raises since then, but my rent has increased $300/month, so I'm now paying 22% of my income to rent today.
The more depressing part is I'm looking around for a new apartment now, and all the prices have risen the same in every other apartment building. I could probably get $100 off my rent by moving to a new place, but that's it.
Freaking blood sucking landlords. I can't even comprehend how people who only make minimum wage manage.
The more depressing part is I'm looking around for a new apartment now, and all the prices have risen the same in every other apartment building. I could probably get $100 off my rent by moving to a new place, but that's it.
Freaking blood sucking landlords. I can't even comprehend how people who only make minimum wage manage.
There is no building in Berlin right now anyway as there is no space and no one is interested in building high.
The $10k is pre-tax. To get my numbers I multiplied my 2016 rent by 12 and divided by my pre-tax 2016 income, then did the same with my 2020 numbers.
Still doesn't work, unless you're paying >65% in taxes. maybe your 2016 % was off.
I absolutely can and will blame greedy landlords as one of the leading causes for high rents. Out of reach housing for the poorest in society due to high rents as set by landlords are a leading cause of homelessness and I'm all for increased Social Housing instead. Sorry if that touched a nerve though!
I'm allegedly from the UK, where there was rent control in the private sector for over 6 decades, before Thatcher ended it and homelessness started to become a big thing again. I merely need to look at the realities of what letting a status quo of rapidly escalating rents has caused for the vast majority of people, who ultimately devote larger and larger chunks of their income towards rent which becomes unsustainable, prices people out of certain locations, etc.
And, I'm absolutely more dedicated and certain of the validity political views than you could ever be.
I love how you resort to calling out subreddits you don't like, even though you don't know if he browses reddit or not. All this just because he doesn't like landlords. L O L
I only know of Chapo for the record, legit never heard of Breadtube. I have certainly never browsed either. XD
Imagine thinking that paying taxes is a worthwhile justification for being a landlord.
I don't think they will do much for AirBnb, but Golden Visas won't be granted anymore for Lisbon and Porto metropolitan regions anymore starting in 2021.
thank god.
I found it ironic that Portugal was letting Oligarchs from Dictator Countries buy out all properties in Lisbon while the regular citizen is getting pushed out into the suburb periphery
They give tax breaks to Rich People from Dictatorship Countries but they don't give tax breaks to Portuguese Citizens who pay shitload of taxes
it's fucked up
(I'm Portuguese-Canadian, and I find it so strange that the Portuguese government bends over backwards for rich foreigners but keeps on taxing the shit out of citizens who making minimum wage)
Yeah, and it's even more bizarre because prices are skyrocket but there's lots of buildings in bad shape in Lisbon (and Porto), which is pretty sad.
They'll also tax some of the foreigners (I guess 10%), but still not even close compared to what they do to the average citzen.
then the stupid government doesn't understand why young Portuguese leave Portugal for other EU countries or the UK
I am not coming back to Portugal (to live) until I reach retirement age.
It's a lose lose situation working there as a Portuguese citizen
Imagine thinking it doesn't fall into the equation and rise in rental pricing.
Current Economists for the most part are so f'd based on the mainstream teachings of those who have come before them...
The article the 2nd person posted is a clear defense of those looking to lose out on the initial profit from rent control.
Get a real job!
The idea that paying taxes makes it okay to charge rent, without giving any tangible value in the world, meanwhile people are scoffing at the idea of govt. intervening in markets because you " deincentivize " building private, profit producing structures...
It's very clear what's at play here for folks looking at this from the angle of rent control as a negative.
Several other posters have detailed what would need to follow it for it to work so stop being disingenuous.
I have a real job, in fact I have two jobs and I have to deal with tenants on top of it.
I welcome you to get into property management and then think of it as not being a real job. What fucking nonsense, Jesus Christ.
Finally someone wrote something that's correct
i hate the fact thatI'll have to move to Berlin in 4-4 years. Trash bin of a city
As someone who is a landlord, good!
Rent has become absolutely insane for the most part in a lot of major cities.
Rent has become absolutely insane for the most part in a lot of major cities.
These people know what's up.
habe ich gerade gelesen copypasta?
Sorry for my rough German, Ich als kind gelernt.
You know I never spent much time away from Berlin and once you accept its shortcomings and learn to deal with its eccentricities it can become kind of charming in an abusive kind of way.
I mean yeah, I live in Berlin, I had this discussion numerous times in 2019, which is why I had to read up on it as I don't adopt policy positions unless I have at least a vague understanding of them. A standard clearly too high for many in this thread. I don't even understand how some of the guys in this thread arrive at their conclusions. We literally got a guy here implying economics as discipline is biased and therefore untrustworthy. How does someone like that argue with a Brexiter, who will claim the same thing? Do you or don't you trust the sciences? And if not, how do you decide which economic policy to adopt?
Only 2% of the economists polled by the IGM believe rent control has a positive effect "over the past three decades on the amount and quality of broadly affordable rental housing in cities that have used them."