In Germany, the Correct Rent Is Printed in a Table — Epoche B1
In most large German cities the going rent for a flat is printed in a public table called the Mietspiegel — a rent index built from surveys of what tenants there actually pay. It is not a wish list but a record, and the law gives that record teeth. Such a table exists because Germany rents. In much of the country renting is not a stage before buying but the normal way to live in a home for decades, so the rent question could not be left entirely to the moment of signing. Because the table exists, a landlord raising the rent on a sitting tenant cannot simply name a number. The increase must be justified against the local comparative rent for flats of that age, size and area, and there is a ceiling on how far rent may climb within a few years. The rent brake leans on the same figure: when a flat is re-let in a designated tight market, the new rent may not exceed the comparative rent by more than a set margin. Reading your own row is an exercise in categories — year of construction, square metres, neighbourhood, lift or no lift. You end at a range, and an argument about where in it your flat sits. The limits are real. New buildings and comprehensively modernised flats are largely outside the rules, and the comparative figure is drawn from recent contracts, so it rises with the market it is meant to restrain, only later. Berlin tried a hard cap and the Federal Constitutional Court struck it down in 2021, holding it beyond the state's power. Which is the honest description of the Mietspiegel. It does not decide what rent should be. It records what rent has been, and then makes the past argue with the present. References Bundesrepublik Deutschland (2002). Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB), §§ 556d and 558–558d. Berlin: Bundesministerium der Justiz. Bundesrepublik Deutschland (2021). Verordnung über den Inhalt und das Verfahren zur Erstellung und zur Anpassung von Mietspiegeln (Mietspiegelverordnung – MsV). Bundesgesetzblatt I. Bundesverfassungsgericht (2021). Beschluss des Zweiten Senats vom 25. März 2021 – 2 BvF 1/20 (Berliner Mietendeckel). Karlsruhe: Bundesverfassungsgericht.