According to the German Tenants’ Association (DMB), an increasing number of new leases are linked to inflation. In larger metropolises, so-called index rents were agreed on average for 30 percent of new contracts in 2022, the tenants’ association reported on Friday. In making this estimate, the DMB bases itself on consultations with the tenants’ associations in Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Cologne, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf, which together carried out around 232,000 consultations a year. Tenants’ Association President Lukas Siebenkotten said that it was not socially and housing policy responsible that recently every third newly concluded rental contract was linked to inflation. Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) must ban index rents, he demanded. For Berlin, the tenants’ association assumes that up to 70 percent of the new rental contracts provide for indexation, i.e. significantly more than the average for the relevant cities. “With high inflation and rising energy prices, index rents have become an unreasonable cost trap and must also be more limited in the portfolio,” said Siebenkotten. According to the DMB, the trend towards index rents has increased significantly. In 2020, her share in the consultations was still marginal.
Tenants’ association – criticism of index rents – economy
