Where in Germany rents are rising steeply

Renting is deeply engrained in German society, with around half of the population opting to rent long-term rather than buy.

But finding a place to live at a reasonable cost has become a lot more tricky as rental prices have skyrocketed in recent years.

New figures from the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) show where the costs on first-time lets and re-lets have been going up the most in Germany - and, surprisingly, a large city is not in the top spot. 

In fact, Potsdam, a city of just under 200,000 on the border of Berlin, saw the strongest hike on rent listings in a year with an increase of 31.2 percent.

The figures were revealed by the German government in an answer to a query from the Left Party in the Bundestag.

Potsdam was followed by nearby Berlin, a city of around 3.5 million, which saw a hike of 26.7 percent on asking rents last year, according to the BBSR research. 

READ ALSO: Why are Berlin rents soaring when there's a rent brake?

The figures reflect the supply that flat seekers come across when they search the internet for a rental flat with a living space of 40 to 100 square metres.

Hike in rents in many rural regions

The statistically least populated district in Germany is also represented in the top ten for rent growth. In Prignitz in the far north-west of Brandenburg, rents in listings rose by 18 percent last year. Overall, however, living there is still much more affordable than in many other regions.

Despite the significant increase, tenants only have to pay an average of €7.08 per square metre on new rental contracts. This is below the national average of €7.30 per square metre.

Two districts in the rather sparsely populated state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania also show high rent increases. The Baltic Sea district of Vorpommern-Rügen around Stralsund saw a hike of almost 20 percent last year, and the district of Vorpommern-Greifwald on the Polish border registered a hike on asking rents of more than 15 percent.

According to the data, rents also became significantly more expensive in the Upper Palatinate district of Tirschenreuth near the Bavarian-Czech border (up 23.9 percent) - although there is still a very low rent level in this area. Here, a square metre is still available for around €6.86.

In Kaiserslautern, asking rents rose by almost 20 percent, in Kaufbeuren by 17 percent and in the districts of Trier-Saarburg and Wunsiedel im Fichtelgebirge by just over 15 percent.

Berlin now the second most expensive city to rent in

While a flat in Germany costs an average of €10.55 per square metre to rent, the same space in Berlin costs more than €16, according to the analysis. 

This makes the capital the second most expensive city to rent in Germany. According to the BBSR, rents are only higher in Munich at more than €20.50 per square metre. 

A recent study commissioned by the Berlin Tenants' Association found a third of Berlin households can no longer afford to rent a flat at current asking prices.

Thousands of people took to the streets in Berlin on Saturday to demonstrate against high rents under the slogan 'Mietenwahnsinn' - rent insanity.

According to police estimates, more than 4,000 people were at the protest, where organisers demanded a ‘radical turnaround in housing policy’ through a nationwide rent cap, the implementation of the referendum ‘Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co’ and a ban on owner-occupancy cancellations and forced evictions.

Organisers reported a total of 12,000 demonstrators at the event. 

READ ALSO: Berlin landlords can legally be expropriated, expert panel rules