The cost of renting an apartment in Berlin has increased substantially in the last two years, with tenants now paying on average 50 cents more per month per square metre, according to the latest rent index.
The average rent per square metre – excluding bills – has climbed 6.9 percent to 7.71 euros in the last two years, according to the Berlin Rent Index 2026.
Of course, variables like size, location and building type all affect prices.
Prices have risen particularly sharply in some of the buildings that were once the most affordable: former GDR constructions.
Some East German prefab apartments in sought-after locations with good amenities, like Fischerinsel in Berlin-Mitte, have seen substantial rent hikes in the last two years.
For example, the top price per square metre for flats over 85 square metres in prefabs built between 1973 and 1990 has jumped over 49 percent to 9.65 euros in the last two years.
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But overall, East German prefabs still command the lowest rents in the capital. Large apartments (over 100sqm) in less desirable spots can be found at 5.11 euros per sqm, the data showed.
Newer buildings continue to command premium prices because the rent brake, introduced in 2015, does not apply to any building completed in 2014 or later.
The brake stipulates that landlords cannot charge tenants more than 10 percent of the comparative local rental price.
Urban development senator Christian Gaebler has criticised the fact that newer constructions are excluded from this law.
“The longer this is not adjusted, the more we run into the problem that project developers and landlords calculate rents that, even in the long term, do not have to be based on the local comparative rent,” the senator told Berliner Morgenpost newspaper.
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The brake is currently being discussed in the national expert commission, he said.
The only apartments to buck the upwards price trend are those measuring between 70 and 95 sqm in average residential locations and built between 2010 and 2015.
Average rents there have dropped to 11.39 euros per square metre compared with 12.05 euros in 2024.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thelocal.de
