Berlin: woman turns out to be a living wanted ad in the shop window

Kreuzberg
Housing shortage: woman presents herself as a living wanted ad in the shop window in Berlin

A woman from Berlin is using an unusual campaign to draw attention to her desperate search for a flat: every day she puts up a living advertisement in a shop window.

The situation on the housing market is more than tense, especially in the German metropolises. This is shown, among other things, by current figures on the rental market, which the two portals Immoscout and Immowelt have collected. According to Immowelt manager Felix Kusch, Berlin is the “outlier among German cities”. In no other metropolis have prices risen so sharply at the beginning of the year.

This also applies to rooms in shared flats: A room in the 2023 summer semester costs an average of 640 euros, as the Moses Mendelssohn Institute (MMI) in cooperation with the real estate portal WG-gesucht.de published in a study a few weeks ago. That is 140 euros (plus 28 percent) more than twelve months ago.

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The supply is too small, the demand too high – as evidenced by the sometimes hundred-meter-long queues for viewings of apartments. However, fewer and fewer people can afford the rental properties. Joana V is one of them. Her sublease in Berlin-Kreuzberg was suddenly terminated without reason after several years, reports the neighborhood initiative “Bizim Kiez“.

Terminations for personal use displace tenants in Berlin

For months she has been trying in vain to find new affordable housing in the neighborhood or in neighboring districts – so far without success. In order to draw attention to the precarious situation, she has started an unusual campaign. Since Thursday she has been sitting in the window of an art gallery every day. “She has made herself at home with sparse furniture in the window and spends her days there as a lively wanted ad,” writes the neighborhood initiative. In her hands she holds a sign that reads “Looking for an apartment” in the hope that one of the passers-by could find her a new place to live.

According to the neighborhood initiative, the campaign arouses a lot of interest, but there have not yet been any rental offers. For 561 euros, the Berliner could “at least” rent an Airbnb apartment with a bunk bed and a kitchenette for a weekend. “Bizim Kiez” criticizes the price developments and announces further protest actions in the form of art performances. Because Joana’s fate could overtake many other tenants. The neighborhood initiative observes “that a wave of terminations for personal use is rolling towards the district.”

Sources: “Bizim Kiez” with material from the dpa