property
“Looking for an apartment” – Berliner sits in the shop window
Joana V., artist, draws attention to the lack of affordable living space with her art performance in the shop window. photo
© Christoph Soeder/dpa
Finding an “affordable” apartment in the German capital seems almost impossible. A woman from Kreuzberg has therefore resorted to an unusual means.
In order to draw attention to the tense situation on the Berlin housing market, a woman from Kreuzberg has resorted to unusual means: the apartment seeker has been sitting in the shop window of a Kreuzberg gallery between suitcases and boxes since Thursday and is holding a sign that reads “Looking for an apartment”.
As part of the multi-day art performance, the local resident takes a seat in the shop window on Falckensteinstrasse every day between 12 p.m. and 8 p.m., the neighborhood initiative Bizim Kiez announced on Friday.
The sublease of the woman from Kreuzberg, who has been living in Wrangelkiez for years, was terminated without reason. The search for new, affordable accommodation has been in vain for months. The initiative criticizes the fact that owners and real estate companies are offering apartments at “moon prices”. In addition, more and more homeowners announced their own needs. The shop window campaign aroused the interest of many passers-by – but the woman from Kreuzberg has not yet received a rental offer.
The housing shortage in Berlin has worsened in recent years. This was made visibly clear recently by a queue over a hundred meters long for an apartment viewing in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Add to that the high prices. A room in a shared flat costs an average of 640 euros in the summer semester of 2023, according to a study published a few weeks ago by the Moses Mendelssohn Institute (MMI) in cooperation with the real estate portal WG-gesucht.de. That is 140 euros (plus 28 percent) more than twelve months ago. Berlin is the second most expensive city after Munich.