Flash News

Two vehicles burned in Maliq, arson suspected

Foreign Language Exam, on Tuesday the 'fever' officially begins for high school graduates

Truck catches fire on 'Rruga e Kombit', driver escapes

The French footballer is declared the "player of the season" in the Champions League

Flames engulf the Darëzeza forest massif in Fier

Bota

Foreigners pay more for rent than Germans

Politiko 2025-05-25 10:41:28

Foreigners pay more for rent than Germans

In Germany, foreigners pay more on average to rent apartments than people with German passports. But why?

Foreigners in Germany pay an average of 9.5 percent more rent per square meter than Germans. This is according to the latest analysis by the Federal Statistical Office. For people without German citizenship, the average net rent in Germany (excluding heating and utility costs) is 7.75 euros per square meter, while for people with a German passport it is an average of 7.08 euros. But rents are even higher for everyone when you add in the utilities that have to be paid, because these prices are net.

The first attempt at an explanation was immediately made by the Statistics Office: it is assumed that the reason lies in the fact that foreigners mainly rent smaller apartments. This can save on the total rent, but the price per square meter is usually lower for larger apartments.

Concrete figures: a quarter (25 percent) of foreigners in 2022 lived in apartments smaller than 60 square meters, while among Germans this figure was only about one in eight (12 percent), which means that Germans largely live in apartments larger than 60 square meters.

Overall, foreign families live on average in 85.7 square meters of living space, while German families live in 109.6 square meters.

Place of residence does not explain the differences

The key factor, according to the analysis, is not the passport, but the financial situation: in general, poorer people require smaller apartments, and this group includes a proportionally larger number of foreigners, which means that poverty among foreigners is on average more widespread.

But the Office claims that it does not have reliable statistics that would clearly prove the link between foreign poverty and rental prices. The necessary data on the housing market and the economic situation of families are collected through various surveys and cannot be simply combined for the entire country.

According to the Federal Office, this phenomenon occurs regardless of the place of residence. Foreigners pay higher rents per square meter both in large cities, where demand is high, and in smaller municipalities.

While the difference in rent in large cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants is 7.3 percent, in medium-sized cities from 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants it is 6.6 percent. In even smaller cities (from 10,000 to 50,000 inhabitants) the difference in rent is 9.3 percent, while in municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants these differences are even higher and go up to an average of 10.6 percent./ DW

Latest news

OSZAR »