At this point, I don’t need to stress again how beautiful and exiting Berlin is. I’ve explained this adequately before and most of you know already that this is just true. There is one thing I recently came across that I wasn’t previously aware of – Berlin seem to be a heaven for rental tenants, as I’ve read in “EXBERLINER”, an English-language magazine for and about Berlin.

16 percent of Berliners live in their own property while the the national average is a much higher 52 percent. The story as to why Berlin has so many tenants, lodgers and passers-through starts almost 60 years ago when Berlin had a housing shortage after the Second World War. In addition, German civil code is another detail that supports this trend by giving tenants more rights than in other comparable countries.

While most rental contracts don’t have an expiry date, it is also very hard to get kicked out of your apartment except a few minor specific details (i.e. not paying your rent, landlord’s own use of the apartment) – tenants seem to be in paradise with laws that allow tenants to “feel at home”. So some Berliners have made subletting a profitable business. This model looks interesting if you have to leave town for extended periods because of work. The landlord is not allowed to influence the tenant’s life, so if they need to move to another place for a work-related reason, the landlord has to agree to a subtenant. Imagine, you buy a second home property in Berlin, a nice and well located apartment – you might be able to have covered your mortgage by subletting your flat on a short-term basis even you don’t have to. And all that can be managed by an agency specialized in such business. Feel free to contact us so we can get you a place to buy so you can sublet afterwards. How does that sound?

Source: magazine EXBERLINER, article by Prue Gordema

Posted By: Peter Rabitz