Housing shortage: Where students can not find a place in the dorm

First semester, new city - no apartment. As in previous years, the housing shortage for students is increasing at the beginning of the winter semester: in the six university cities with the longest waiting lists alone, 25,600 students are currently hoping for a place in the hostel, showing previously unpublished figures from the German Student Union (DSW).

In Munich, the situation is most dramatic: at the start of the winter semester, 12,000 students hope for a place in the dorm - just over a year ago, there were still around 11,200. This is followed by Berlin, Stuttgart and Hamburg.

In order to get on the waiting lists, applicants must prove that they are enrolled at the respective university. According to the DSW, 57 student and student organizations nationwide offer around 194,000 student housing places for students. As a rule, they live there on 18 to 25 square meters.

"Affordable, affordable housing for students has become dramatically scarce," says Achim Meyer at the Heyde, Secretary General of the German Student Union. At present, the number of state-subsidized dormitory capacities would not even suffice for ten percent of the students.

Munich: Chance of dormitory higher than it looks

On the waiting lists, however, are also applicants from previous semesters, emphasizes the Studentenwerk in Munich. This means that not all students currently on the list are still looking for a room.

"Experience shows that the students who have been on the waiting list for some time, ie occupy top positions, often refuse offers because they have found a home in the meantime," says the Studentenwerk.

Within a year, around 6,000 students could usually move into residential halls in Munich - around half of those who are currently on the waiting list. Accordingly, current applicants would rather get a chance than the pure number suggests.

Demand: 25,000 additional dormitory places

The Studentenwerk data matches the results of the Student Housing Report 2019, which was recently published. Accordingly, Munich students have to pay an average of € 717 for a 30-square-meter apartment - the highest rents in a nationwide comparison. Rents in Munich, Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt, Berlin and Constance increased by at least six percent last year, according to the study.

"Even if the number of students falls in the coming decades, in the medium and long term is not expected to relax the housing markets," says Meyer on the Heyde. Accordingly, the DSW demands from federal and state governments to use funds for social housing promotion also for the preservation and construction of student dormitories - and more specifically: nationwide at least 25,000 additional dormitories.

More money for housing construction calls for the free association of student unions (fzs). And: Another and regular Bafög increase. Because of the current housing shortage, the Bafög reform would have changed little a few months ago: "The amount provided for housing there is just € 325. So you can not even pay a small room in many cities," said Leonie Ackermann, board member in the fzs.