The two-room apartment in Berlin-Mitte looks like a hotel room: king-size bed and glass coffee table set, hanging on the wall a few abstract images that have the same turquoise color as the carpet that covers a large part of the living space. and sleeping area covered. There is also a "welcome light" that automatically turns on as soon as someone enters the room, super fast internet and a brand new fitted kitchen. The whole thing has a proud price: 68 square meters for 2720 euros, about 40 euros per square meter. On top of that come 510 euros for the additional costs.
Anyone who is currently looking for a place to live in Germany's major cities, encounters the relevant real estate platforms on the Internet on more and more such listings. A new study by real estate research institute F + B, which is available to SPIEGEL, confirms this trend: between 2005 and 2018, the number of furnished housing offers in Germany has quadrupled. The number of such offers has risen from 32,500 to more than 127,500.
Although the number of advertisements has stagnated in recent years or even declined slightly, this is mainly due to the fact that significantly fewer apartments came on the market in the big cities. In percentage terms, furnished apartments account for an increasing share of the total housing market: from almost three percent in 2007, it climbed to around 14 percent in 2018 (see chart). "Because fewer and fewer unfurnished apartments are offered, the proportion of furnished apartments is increasing massively," says Bernd Leutner, Managing Director of F + B.
He expects that the share will continue to grow, because landlords could enforce higher rents. "In times of housing shortage, higher yields can be achieved with such apartments," says Leutner.
The trend in Berlin is particularly clear: Since 2005, 10,000 apartments with complete equipment have been added to the city, and now one third of all apartments offered there are furnished. Due to the ban on misappropriation a few years ago, more and more holiday apartments are coming onto the market, which are now leased for a longer period.
"Landlords exploit the housing shortage of people mercilessly"
Ulrich Ropertz is watching the development with great concern. For the managing director of the German Tenants 'Association, it is the landlords' attempt to enforce even higher rents with furnished apartments and to get even more return. "Landlords mercilessly exploit people's housing shortages by offering them overpriced furnished apartments," says Ropertz. Although there is a need in the luxury segment for fully-equipped apartments, but the supply exceeds the real demand by far. "In relaxed housing markets, there would not be such an absurdly high number of offers because no one would pay those horrendous prices," he says.
In fact, according to the F + B analysis, furnished apartments are almost twice as expensive as unfurnished apartments in Germany. And prices for furnished flats have risen even faster than for traditional flats: since 2005, they have increased by almost 50 percent, while prices for unfurnished flats "only" increased by almost 18 percent.
The Berlin-based startup Wunderflats is the market leader in Germany in brokering such offers. The company's digital platform currently offers more than 55,000 furnished apartments, most of them in Berlin. The company does not own the apartments, it only takes care of the marketing of the offers. Owners pay a fee to the portal.
The offer is usually aimed at employees who work project-related in a city. For example, career starter or consultant. Many of the ads are in English to address guests from abroad. Lovingly furnished one-bedroom apartment "in the heart of buzzing Neukölln" it says about there.
Many offers violate the rental price brake
Rather not addressed by the offer should feel shiftworkers who have to work at night. For example, an advertisement for a "great and chic apartment" in Hamburg states: "We are relinquishing to tenants who, due to night shift work, from 22.00 to 6.00 o'clock make noises (rattling, climbing stairs, slamming doors, etc.). are active ". Also, smoking is in the apartment "absolutely forbidden" and lead to "immediate termination and compensation claims due to the subsequent renovation of the apartment".
"Such absurd regulations would be in a lease or in house rules inadmissible," says Ropertz of the tenants. Much worse, in his view, is that many landlords who offer their apartments, for example, on platforms such as Wunderflats, circumvent the rental price brake. The law states that newly occupied apartments may cost no more than ten percent more than comparable apartments in the area. For furnished apartments landlords are likely to charge a furniture surcharge.
However, German courts have not finally clarified how this surcharge should be calculated. For example, while the Landgericht Mannheim considered a surcharge of one percent of the furniture value per month to be justified, the Berlin district court found two percent appropriate for a useful life of ten years.
The actual surcharges landlords currently require are often many times higher. For example, at that furnished 50-square-meter newly built apartment in Berlin, which was recently offered for 1200 euros rent on an online portal. Even if one uses the highest price per square meter in the rent index, one arrives at a furniture surcharge of 450 euros per month. After the Berlin court ruling, the furniture would have cost 22,500 euros - and would have to be brand new.
Whether the respective housing offer violates the rental price brake is often difficult for tenants to recognize in normal apartments. And even if they have a suspicion, they often do not claim their rights, says Ropertz - for fear of quarreling with the landlord.
For furnished apartments, the situation is even more difficult. On the one hand, they are often rented only for short periods of time - a litigation is hardly worth it. On the other hand, tenants are often unaware of what the furniture is worth. Landlords need to disclose what they are pricing for furnishing when tenants sue. But so far no such case is being heard by a German court. "Most tenants do not dare to take action against their landlords," says Ropertz.
And what do the providers of furnished apartments say? SPIEGEL has asked the company Wunderflats for an opinion on the various allegations. The company refused. For time reasons, as it was said.