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Study: Rent puts a good two million people in a precarious position - "Housing can make you poor"

2021-08-04T13:22:56.175Z


The high housing costs continue to increase economic inequality in Germany. One group of people is particularly affected.


The high housing costs continue to increase economic inequality in Germany.

One group of people is particularly affected.

Düsseldorf - According to a study, almost 1.1 million households in Germany have less than the subsistence level left to live on after rent has been deducted.

This means that almost 13 percent of tenant households in major German cities are in a precarious economic situation, according to a study by the Humboldt University in Berlin published on Wednesday and funded by the union-affiliated Hans Böckler Foundation.

A total of around 2.1 million people live in the households affected.

According to the study, households of single parents are particularly hard hit.

In this group, a good quarter only has a residual income below the subsistence level.


Study: Two million people in a precarious location due to high rents

“Housing conditions are not only an expression, but also a factor of social inequality in our cities.

The already existing income polarization is intensified by the rent payment, ”the researchers judged.

Tenant households in the highest income bracket would have an average of 4.4 times as much monthly net income before deducting rent and ancillary costs as households in the lowest category.

After paying the gross heating rent, the factor increases to 6.7 times.

Because poorer households would have to spend a far above average proportion of their income on housing, even though they lived in significantly less living space in less well-equipped apartments.

“Living can make you poor,” summed up the researchers.


Subsistence level endangered by rent: Federal Statistical Office also alarmed

The Federal Statistical Office had also analyzed the burden on households with housing costs.

According to his data, in 2019 almost 14 percent of the population (around 11.4 million people) lived in households that were financially overburdened by high housing costs.

The authority sees an overload of housing costs when a household spends more than 40 percent of the available income on housing - regardless of whether the person concerned is renting or living in their own four walls and paying off a loan, for example.

According to Destatis, the overload rate has decreased slightly since 2014.

(dpa / AFP / frs)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-08-04

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