Apartment prices in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen keep rising.
For this reason, the district will in future assume significantly higher rents than before for those in need.
Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen -
Anyone who has ever been looking for an apartment can tell you a thing or two about it: Finding something affordable in the district is extremely difficult.
A debate in the district social committee on Monday threw a spotlight on this situation.
There it was about the question of how much a rented apartment paid for by the district may cost for Hartz IV or welfare recipients.
The upper limits have been raised significantly.
In the case of new rentals, the prices rose in four years from 9.50 to 11.50 euros cold
The current maximum values came into force on June 1, 2017.
The guideline must be regularly checked and adjusted, as Thomas Bigl, head of the social welfare office, explained to the district councilors.
And in four years the situation on the rental market worsened.
“The rent level increased for new lettings from an average of 9.50 to 11.50 euros basic rent per square meter,” reported Bigl.
Existing apartments, on the other hand, have remained “relatively constant” in terms of price.
On behalf of the district office, a Berlin office evaluated a total of 1937 public rental offers in the district from spring 2019 to spring 2021 - “from very cheap to luxurious,” says Bigl.
The average prices called up there were broken down for three separate areas, between which there is a price differential.
It is most expensive in the “Northwest region”, which includes the cities of Wolfratshausen and Geretsried as well as the communities of Icking and Münsing.
It is comparatively cheaper in the "South area" with Lenggries, Gaißach, Jachenau and the Loisachtal communities.
In the middle are Bad Tölz and the surrounding communities.
Most of the rental offers in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen are hidden
According to the law, the statistical basis for the rent ceilings paid by the district cannot be shaken. The committee only had one decision to make: do you set the upper rent limit on the basis of the lower third of the rental market, as before? Or are you only considering the lower quarter? On Bigl's advice, the committee voted for the latter.
The head of the social welfare office did the math: In the district, around 4,000 people are entitled to have the office pay the rent. "That makes up only 3.5 percent of the total population," says Bigl. In relation to this, a quarter of the offer is sufficiently large. “In practice in the job center it is also evident that many can still find an apartment in addition to the existing rent ceilings,” said Bigl, who noted that the apartments advertised on the Internet and in newspapers only made up a small part of the market. “As a landlord you can hardly do that because you would otherwise be overrun.” Most of the rentals were “underhand”.
If the upper rent limit is higher, there is also the risk that landlords will set the rent “backwards” on this basis.
And if the office pays rents that are too high, it becomes even more difficult for the many people who need a cheap apartment without government subsidies.
Rent up to 590 euros is paid for a single Hartz IV recipient
The result of all this: From January 1, 2022, the district will now pay up to 590 euros cold rent for a 50 square meter apartment for a single welfare recipient in the “Northwest region”.
So far, the upper limit was 470 euros.
For a community of five people, it goes up to 1,100 euros for a 105 square meter apartment (previously: up to 920 euros).
As Bigl added, the office pays up to these sums without further investigation.
If a Hartz IV recipient finds a more expensive apartment, the rent can still be taken over after a case-by-case examination - "if, for example, there are special requirements for accessibility," says Bigl.
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