More than 180 organisations and group initiatives have called for a "March against gentrification and rent madness". The march starts at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin on 14. April 2018 at 2 p.m. and was registered for 4,000 participants but 10,000 have already announced their participation via facebook.
85 % of Berlin's population are living in rented accommodation which makes changes is rent levels felt by the overwhelming majority. Families have to leave the areas where they have lived for years, where they have formed social ties and where their children have been going to school. They just can't afford the rent increases anymore and in some cases have to move out of the city altogether.
Most of the declining numbers of newly built apartments are in the luxury segment out of financial reach for the local working population. Social housing has been neglected, affordable housing is not available.
Of the existing apartments many have been modernized in recent years and the organisers of the march are criticizing that those modernisations play a big part in the rent increases and displacements. E.g. a new lift and energy saving new facade easily run up to 20,000 € per apartment which will allow the owner to raise the rent by 11% or 2,200 € per year for this apartment.
Regulations like "Milieuschutz" are trying to put a limit on the type of modernisation that will be allowed in protected areas amongst other things, more details here: http://germanproperties.blogspot.de/2018/03/the-can-do-and-cant-do-renovating.html. But the organizers say that there are not enough protected areas especially in the inner city districts.
The federal government has already announced a new initiative to increase social housing but also to expand the regulations for local authorities to protect social structures in their cities.
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Photo by Darko Pribeg on Unsplash
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85 % of Berlin's population are living in rented accommodation which makes changes is rent levels felt by the overwhelming majority. Families have to leave the areas where they have lived for years, where they have formed social ties and where their children have been going to school. They just can't afford the rent increases anymore and in some cases have to move out of the city altogether.
Most of the declining numbers of newly built apartments are in the luxury segment out of financial reach for the local working population. Social housing has been neglected, affordable housing is not available.
Of the existing apartments many have been modernized in recent years and the organisers of the march are criticizing that those modernisations play a big part in the rent increases and displacements. E.g. a new lift and energy saving new facade easily run up to 20,000 € per apartment which will allow the owner to raise the rent by 11% or 2,200 € per year for this apartment.
Regulations like "Milieuschutz" are trying to put a limit on the type of modernisation that will be allowed in protected areas amongst other things, more details here: http://germanproperties.blogspot.de/2018/03/the-can-do-and-cant-do-renovating.html. But the organizers say that there are not enough protected areas especially in the inner city districts.
The federal government has already announced a new initiative to increase social housing but also to expand the regulations for local authorities to protect social structures in their cities.
