Berlin Plans Five-Year Rent Freeze in Response to Anger Over Housing Crunch
- Surging rents have sparked protests and a referendum push
- Lack of affordable homes is becoming a bigger political issue
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomber
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Berlin plans to freeze rents in response to public outrage over a growing shortage of affordable housing, setting a legal precedent in Germany on an issue that’s increasingly creating political waves across Europe.
The city’s Social Democratic-led government agreed that rents should remain fixed for five years, Katrin Lompscher, Berlin’s senator for housing, said at a news conference on Tuesday. What’s more, tenants who can show that they’re paying unreasonably high rents will have the right to demand a reduction from their landlord.