In the summer semester of 2023, students in Germany will once again be faced with a significant increase in housing costs. With an average of 458 euros per month, young people will have to pay another 23 euros per month more for a standard shared room than they did six months ago, at the beginning of the winter semester. That is a result of the investigation of the Moses Mendelssohn of institute in co-operation with the real estate portal WG-Gesucht.de as well as the project developer GBI Group. Offers in all 94 German university cities with at least 5,000 studying were evaluated. The independent market survey has been conducted since 2013.
"The momentum of significant price increases has not yet slowed down. This is the only way to explain the more than five percent increase in housing costs within just a few months," sums up Dr. Stefan Brauckmann, Managing Director of the Moses Mendelssohn Institute (MMI): "On an annual basis, the increase is 10.6 percent. Our analysis of prices including ancillary costs makes it clear that the rise in energy prices in particular plays a decisive role in this development." These increases therefore affect not only those who are new to a university city, but also almost all students who already live there. In 37 of 94 cities, housing costs actually rose by more than 10 percent within a year. Dr. Brauckmann: "This affects more than 1.1 million students at these locations, in other words, almost every second student at German universities."
Above all, the situation is coming to a head for those who have only a low income and receive BAföG, for example. The flat-rate housing allowance included in the state support - increased from 325 to 360 euros in mid-2022 as part of the BAföG reform - is not even enough for an average room in 68 cities. In 40 cities, even the lower price segment is above this level. However, most students are enrolled in these expensive but sought-after cities. Thus, arithmetically, more than 80 percent of students are affected by the difficult housing situation. "Against this background, there is an urgent need for additional financial support for students living away from home," clarifies analyst Dr. Brauckmann: "In more and more cities, it now takes the full salary of a mini-job, 520 euros, to cover housing costs. The 200-euro flat-rate energy allowance recently granted at great bureaucratic expense therefore has only a very short-term effect on many students."
Berlin becomes the second most expensive city after Munich
This is especially true if young people have chosen study locations where rents are currently growing particularly significantly, such as in Berlin. "In addition to higher energy costs, there is also a renewed increase in international demand and far too little construction activity. The bottleneck is becoming extremely acute there," says Dr. Brauckmann. In the German capital, the average determined WG monthly rent has therefore risen further since last fall from 550 euros to 640 euros now. At the end of 2021, this figure was still below 500 euros. Berlin has thus seen an increase of almost one third within one and a half years. As a result, Berlin has now left all other cities behind in terms of price, with the exception of the front-runner Munich - where housing costs have risen once again from 700 to 720 euros: Frankfurt at 580 euros, Hamburg at 570 euros and Cologne at 560 euros now follow at a distance.
Not only for Berlin (by 28 percent from 500 to 640 euros) are significant price increases documented in major university cities within one year - between the start of the summer semesters 2022 and 2023. For example, housing costs increased in these 12 months
- in Erfurt by 21.4 percent (from 290 to 352 euros)
- in Magdeburg by 20.1 percent (from 273 to 328 euros)
- in Passau by 19.7 percent (from 355 to 425 euros)
- in Leipzig by 17.2 percent (from 311.50 to 365 euros)
- in Bonn by 16.3 percent (from 430 to 500 euros)
- in Lüneburg by 16.1 percent (from 366 to 425 euros)
- in Cologne by 15.8 percent (from 475 to 550 euros)
- in Hamburg by 14.0 percent (from 500 to 570 euros)
- in Essen by 13.5 percent (from 340 to 386 euros)
- in Oldenburg by 13.4 percent (from 335 to 380 euros)
- in Mainz by 12.8 percent (from 430 to 485 euros)
- in Freiburg by 12.1 percent (from 464 to 520 euros)
- in Düsseldorf by 12.0 percent (from 460 to 515 euros)
- in Mannheim by 11.9 percent (from 420 to 470 euros)
The long-term comparison in many cities also shows the dramatic nature of the situation. In Berlin, the WG price increased from 335 euros in 2013, according to the MMI analysis. Dr. Brauckmann: "With a 91 percent increase, we are thus not far from doubling within two student generations."
The price explosion is hitting the two-thirds of students who neither live with parents or relatives nor have snagged one of the rare places in publicly subsidized dormitories. "On the open market, shared apartments are now also more in demand from younger professionals and older tenants of the 60+ generation. Because WGs are for many the only possibility of living in good situation and at an appropriate price", explain Annegret Mülbaier, spokeswoman of WG-Gesucht.de.: "Thus the pressure for students rises ever further." Aggravatingly in addition it comes for many beginning academics - particularly if they are new in the city and there are language barriers - that they see themselves with later study place assignment often under time pressure. Mülbaier: "In this difficult situation, a housing cost analysis significantly increases market transparency."
However, it is not only the price level that determines how difficult students find it to find housing. A total of 23 criteria have therefore been examined by the Moses Mendelssohn Institute since 2013 for the analysis of the student housing market. These then regularly include criteria such as construction activity, the development of student numbers, total population and dormitory places of non-profit operators or the attractiveness of a university abroad.
For both major cities and smaller locations, the GBI Group, as an experienced project developer, plans and builds houses under its own brand SMARTments student. To ensure that sufficient affordable accommodation for students and trainees continues to be created in the future, GBI is hoping for a rapid improvement in the programs for public funding of such properties, thanks in part to an initiative by the German government. "Only in this way can the vicious circle be broken at many sought-after university locations. Despite expensive land, affordable housing for young people must also be created there. Their hunger for education must not be thwarted in this way," emphasizes Simon Hübner, Managing Director of the GBI Group: "This is in the interest of society as a whole. The young people are the skilled workers of tomorrow that our country urgently needs. The international exchange of future generations of scientists must also continue to be possible. For this, too, housing in university cities must remain affordable."
