Corona brings more and more tenants into financial distress.
The applications for housing benefit in Munich rose within one year from 8931 to 15,778.
The average value of the rent index increased.
Munich - The pandemic * has slowed down a lot - including the re-survey of the city's official rent index.
Because in March 2020, just as the social department was about to start collecting the data again, the republic slid into the first lockdown.
The basis for calculating the rent index are around 3,000 telephone surveys and, in a second step, personal interviews.
The latter were not possible in lockdown anyway.
According to Schiwy, the telephone samples showed that the low willingness to answer of households with children or with people from systemically important professions, such as nurses or cashiers, would lead to a distorted picture.
In contrast, an above-average number of high-income earners took part.
Schiwy: “There were considerable doubts about the validity of the data.” The LMU, which is carrying out the analysis for the city in cooperation with the Kantar Institute, also advised not to pursue the survey any further.
Munich: City council decided in 2020 not to raise the rent index again
The majority of the city council had therefore already decided in September 2020 not to raise the rent index 2021 again, but to update the data from 2019 only according to the consumer price index (3.1 percent).
This is legally possible.
This more or less automatically resulted in an increase in the average rent from EUR 11.69 to EUR 12.05.
The City Council FDP and the Haus und Grund association criticized this simple method at the time.
For comparison: according to the survey, the Munich * rent index had risen by 4.1 percent from 2017 to 2019.
However, it is only an orientation value anyway, by which the calculation of the local comparative rent is measured.
For this purpose, numerous factors such as residential area, year of construction or equipment features of an apartment are used in a multi-stage process.
Two examples: According to the rent index, a renovated apartment in an old building on Herzogstrasse in Schwabing (35 square meters) has a base price of EUR 13.03.
But including the surcharges for the good central location, modernized bathroom and floor as well as a top kitchen, the net rent would be around 18 euros per square meter.
In total, that would be 630 euros for this small apartment.
For an apartment of the same size in a connected block of flats in Milbertshofener Schopenhauerstraße (average location) with simple furnishings, however, the typical local rent would be only 9.44 euros, because there are many deductions from the average of the rent index (12.38 euros).
Munich social officer Schiwy: Corona effects are drastic
In principle, social security officer Schiwy appealed to the legislature to include older rental contracts and social housing in the calculation basis for the rent index.
So far, only tenancies that are a maximum of six years old can be considered - which of course increases the average value of the rent index.
According to Schiwy, the effects of the corona pandemic on the rental market are drastic.
There is no relaxation whatsoever and many people fear losing their homes due to a loss of income.
“All the more I regret the decision of the federal government not to continue the deferral regulation for rent payments.
Right now - after such a long period of lockdown - it would be more and more needed, ”said Schiwy.
According to the social services department, there were 15,778 applications for housing benefit in the previous year; in 2019 there were 8931. This corresponds to an increase of 76 percent.
The housing benefit is a subsidy from the city for needy people or families in order to secure the rent.
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