Mietpresibremse - Germany's Federal Court
in Karlsruhe rules in favor of tenants

Quick reads

Before we dive into into a landmark ruling by German court regarding rent control, here is a brief overview of what is Mietpreisbremse – Germany’s rent control law.

Mietpreisbremse, a ‘brake’ to the raising rents in major cities, is intended to prevent the landlords setting higehr rents to tenants in many residential areas. It was introduced in 2015 which states that the rent must not be more than 10% higher than the comparable rent (Mietspeigel).The rent cap was introduced in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Jena and Brunswick at the end of 2018.

The Federal court in Karlsruhe ruled that the Mietpreisbremse, the rent control law is constitutionally unquestionable. A case was started in Berlin, when a tenant sued the landlord to repay the money for raising the rent. This was passed onto the Federal court in Karlshruhe after a chamber in Berlin Regional Court found that the rent control law unconstitutional. On Tuesday, 20.08.2019, the Federal Court ruled in favour for the tenant. The landlord is entitled to repay the tenants as the Rent Control Law is does not violate the Germany’s Basic Law.

If you are living in Berlin, you can also check your median rent below. The following are the rankings based on the median cold rent (Kaltmiete) in €/m2 by a report of Berlin HYP and CBRE . Median is the value lying at the midpoint of the distribution. Do not forget that cold rent excludes other expenses like heating, electricity and so on.

1. Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg

2. Mitte

3. Charlottenberg-Wilmersdorf

4. Pankow

5. Tempelhof-Schöneberg

6. Steglitz-Zehlendorf

7. Neukölln

8. Lichtenberg

9. Treptow-Köpenick

10. Reinickendorf

11. Spandau

12. Marzahn-Hellersdorf

Select your district below to check out the corresponding rents!