In Germany, for example, the authorities are preparing a second package of reforms to the Mietpreisbremse, a kind of rent brake, to curb rising rates and close loopholes that landlords have exploited. The Mietpreisbremse has been in place since 2015 and is regularly criticized for its numerous exemptions and weak tenant protection.
How rent conditions will be monitored
The package of new measures includes rent indexation. If the contract is linked to inflation, the landlord will be able to increase the rent by no more than 3.5% per year from the previous rent without utilities.
Secondly, there will be protection against eviction. Right now, a tenant can be evicted if they are 2 months in arrears. The new law will prohibit eviction if the debt is paid off.
It is also a question of short-term contracts. Mietpreisbremse will be extended to contracts with a term of more than 6 months.Now, ordinary contracts are subject to restrictions if they are standard residential leases and are concluded in controlled areas. However, fixed-term contracts (usually less than a year) are not regulated and are not considered as full-fledged contracts in the context of the application of the Mietpreisbremse.
With regard to furnished apartments, landlords will be obliged to transparently segregate the cost: separate basic rent, separate payment for furnishings. There are plans to introduce a limit on the furnishing surcharge and restrictions on the condition of the furnishings in order to avoid artificially inflated rates.
The law should be prepared before the summer parliamentary break. At the same time, the opposition believes that the document is too soft. It calls the package “the absolute minimum,” pointing out that it will not be possible to stop the growth of rents without real enforcement mechanisms and lowering the caps.
Note that Germany has a housing shortage (1.5 million units are missing). In 2024, a free online calculator was launched to check the legality of rent. It was used by 220 thousand people, and a third of them found out that they were overpaying.
