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| “we don’t want a situation like in London”. |
The
housing trap: how can Berlin avoid following in London's pricey
footsteps?
Though
comparatively cheap next to London’s astronomical living costs,
Berlin’s rental prices are rising rapidly. What does this mean for
the native Berliners and ex-Londoners who rely on its reasonable
housing market?
Johanna Kamradt in
Berlin
Wednesday 23
September 2015 12.23 BST
When speaking to
former Londoners who have made the move to Germany’s capital, one
comparison keeps cropping up: living in Berlin feels like East London
did more than a decade ago, before Shoreditch was polished and
Hackney became unaffordable.
Amid the steady
influx of Brits moving to Berlin (the current total is nearing
14,000), there is a growing bond between these two capital cities.
Foodie events by former Londoners are becoming increasingly popular
in Berlin, a new LSE Cities report highlights the cities’ shared
(and growing) preference for cycling and walking over car ownership
and Berlin is now said to be rivalling London as Europe’s startup
capital.
But on one matter,
Berlin is clearly concerned about any comparisons made between the
two cities: housing. Indeed, the manager of the Berlin Tenants’
Association, Reiner Wild, told the Guardian recently that the city’s
new rent cap was put in place precisely because “we don’t want a
situation like in London”.
Ruth Barry has been
living in Berlin for just under a year, after becoming increasingly
frustrated in London. In Berlin, she’s able to focus on her
business full-time, making a larger profit that she did in Britain.
“London makes you work for your place there,” she says. “If you
don’t make it, someone else will take that place.”
While Londoners are
living in an ever-expanding bubble of housing-price stress (in the
first half of 2014, nearly 60,000 Londoners in their 30s left the
city: the highest number since 2008), one still hears a lot about
Berlin being comparatively cheap. Unusually for a national capital,
the cost of living in Berling is still lower than in seven other
major German cities, including Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt. Yet
Berlin’s rental prices are now rising at nearly twice the national
average rate.
Falk Weiss, a
photographer, has been living in Berlin for over 40 years. He enjoys
the influx of people from surrounding countries moving to Berlin, but
says he is worried about the rising rental prices. “People moving
here from other large cities rent flats in ‘hip’ areas for prices
that seem very cheap to them – but for us locals, it’s expensive.
We just think: ‘You poor sods, it must be so expensive where you’re
from if you think these prices are cheap.’”
In London, that’s
especially true: the monthly sq m price for renting a “prime
central London apartment” now ranges from £51 to £64, while in
Berlin, the average sq m rental price is less than €10.50 (£7.50).
While London tenants reportedly spend 72% of their earnings on rent,
Berliners pay out just over 20%.
“It’s unhelpful
to make comparisons with London rents, because prices are relative to
the German rental economy,” says Hannah Gregory, who moved to
Berlin from London seven months ago. She and her partner viewed 30
flats and put in 10 applications before finding their current
apartment. “For long-time Berlin residents, rents are now becoming
unaffordable too.”
Gregory believes
there has been a change in attitude towards people who have recently
moved to the city: “There is this ‘Du bist kein Berliner’ [You
are not a Berliner] movement, which seems to come from a Leftist,
anti-gentrification statement, but actually feels highly
exclusionary.
You see ‘Refugees
Welcome’ graffiti alongside anti-gentrification graffiti.”
Paul Sullivan, a
photographer and writer, who runs slowtravelberlin.com, moved from
London to Berlin more than six years ago – and says the impact on
his lifestyle has been profound. “London gradually started to feel
like an overpriced city full of overworked people – I realised I
was on a treadmill. Living in Berlin has enabled me to build a
lifestyle that’s much closer to my ideal than I could have ever had
in the UK.”
Sullivan believes
the German capital’s efforts to avoid falling into “the London
trap” are laudable – and largely effective. “[The] main flow of
social and political news between my British friends and I tends to
show Germany in a much more progressive light, whether it’s forcing
landlords to adhere to rent caps, holding public referendums on vast
swathes of potential real estate or prompting more women into
corporate boardrooms. Germany is far from perfect, but watching the
UK from a distance over the last few years has been a bit like
watching a slow-motion car crash.”
“Berlin has no
financial sector to speak of, no super-rich areas, and I hope it
won’t ever be as attractive as a luxury investment object,” says
translator Katy Derbyshire, who has been living in Berlin for 19
years. “But I’m starting to hear stories about buildings where
many of the flats are uninhabited second homes, especially in the
East, where a lot of public housing was sold off a few years ago.”
Nevertheless, her
recollections of why she left London suggest she still feels Berlin
is a much more pleasant city to reside in. “John Major had just
introduced the Criminal Justice Act and the UK felt like a very
joyless place to be, where protest and parties were being
criminalised.”
As a single parent
in Berlin, Derbyshire is able to rent a centrally located flat and
work in a job she loves. She is now applying for German citizenship.
How does she feel about London, after having lived in Berlin for
nearly two decades?
“I worry about how
government policy will affect my sister’s life – she works
part-time because she has a disability, and I’m scared she won’t
be able to pay the rent if her tax credits are cut. She and her
daughter couldn’t move out of London because that’s where her job
is, and she couldn’t travel long distances because of her
disability.
“London does seem
to be becoming increasingly uncaring – a place where money counts
more than people’s lives, and where housing is a way to make money
rather than provide people with homes.”
Have you left London
to move to Berlin or vice versa? Share your stories and experiences
in the comments below – and follow Guardian Cities on Twitter and
Facebook to join the discussion
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