The German Trade Union Confederation (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund - DGB) yesterday launched a nationwide “action week”, focused on the topic of housing.

Have your say on housing in Germany

Under the slogan “Affordable is half the battle”, the DGB have planned a programme of more than 200 events across Germany. Not only are these events intended to highlight the increasingly large share of salaries eaten up by rents, but they will also invite the general public to have their say on housing policy.

As part of the action, the DGB will be touring a “mobile living room”, in which they will invite passers-by to share their views on the housing issues affecting them, whether that be finding somewhere to live, spiralling rents, or issues with rental contracts and housing rights. On the basis of the answers they receive, the union plans to develop ideas for fairer housing policy in Germany.

DGB calls for more affordable housing

Speaking from Berlin, DGB board member Stefan Körzell explained the decision to focus on housing issues: “Rising rents are an issue for more and more people working in Germany. The market failure in the housing sector has become obvious - now policy must intervene forcefully and steadily.”

According to Körzell, a minimum of 400.000 new affordable homes are needed each year in Germany, requiring seven billion euros of investment from federal and state governments. He went on to describe the current rate of building as “inadequate”.

Rising rents across Germany

This inability to make sure that Germany’s housing stock meets demand is everywhere apparent in rapidly rising rents. This is nowhere so true as in Germany’s major cities: in the last 10 years alone, rents in Berlin have more than doubled. The average price per square metre in the capital was around 10,04 euros in 2018. Between 2005 and 2018, rents in Munich and Stuttgart also rose by more than 50 percent.