Flat wanted

The difficulty of finding an apartment in Berlin

Photo reportage with experiences of Carole, Tino, Wasim.

The ochre-painted stairwell leads 20 people up to the third floor of an apartment building in Neukölln. Dusk is falling and for most people the after-work hours have begun. The aim is to visit one of the renovated flats announced as beautiful in the internet in an old building in Sonnenallee between Hermannplatz and the S-Bahn station. Rather puzzling are the conspicuously well-dressed people and the basic rent of 13 Euro/sqm. A little later, the street lights are already in full light, another 20 people walk up a stairwell, this time in Donaustraße. Around 49 sqm with a balcony facing south are offered for a basic rent of 13,60 Euro/sqm. The crowd seems more juvenile than at the previous viewing, the tour is held in English language. Both offers will immediately find acceptors. It is March 2016 and apartments in Berlin are a rare commodity, especially affordable ones.

During the past weeks I’ve had in-depth conversations with four people about their experiences with finding a flat.

Carole, 60 years old, single, freelancer with a normal income, moved from Wiesbaden to Berlin in June 2015. She had hoped to find a nice apartment in a good location quickly. But the Berlin housing market messed up her plans. She had to learn that she has to present an infinite number of certificates to get on the short list for an apartment, and that it is impossible to get hold of an apartment directly at the viewing. She subscribed to the newsletters of all internet portals, and after seven month of most intense search and hints of desperation she finally got the decisive clue. A central location hasn’t been her goal for a while and happiness is known to be found in the rear houses, of which one is now home to Carole. Despite its location on the ground floor she is satisfied with the 50 sqm apartment, because one can see the cosy backyard from the windows. Unlike many other candidates, whose desperate glances started to appear in her dreams over time, she had the money to pay the considerable compensation for the furniture of the previous tenant.

Tino, 26 years old, graduate of the University of Jena wants to live in his camping bus with his girlfriend who studied dance in Berlin. Free parking spaces are scarce on the caravan sites [Wagenplätze] in the city. But rooms in shared flats are expensive, prices will be around 250 to 500 Euro for 8 to 20 sqm and even if one is willing to pay, you’ll find yourself on viewings carried out in 5-minute intervals. Hopeless. Both have now bought some time by signing a temporary sublease.

Wasim, 35 years old, has been living in Berlin for two years. We communicate in German and English. The artist and writer came from Syria after his apartment was destroyed by a grenade. Currently he can spend the night in an atelier in Kreuzberg. Despite the support of his Berlin friends, he hasn’t yet been able to find a flat. In his home town one is accustomed to hang up a piece of paper at the grocery store if one needs an apartment. He finds the Berlin housing market to be more and more difficult, bureaucratic and full of competition. Wasim is attending the same language course as Bassam. He does not want to see any photos of him published, but he is happy to tell the story of his flat hunting. Two years and four months it took the Syrian contractor and his wife to find a home for his family of seven. The have attended more than one hundred viewings until they finally found an 85-sqm flat in Rudow for a rent of 840 Euro including heating. However, the apartment can only accommodate five people, meaning that the search for another little flat for their two nearly grown up children has to continue.

Published in MieterEcho 380 / April 2016: Online | PDF

Thanks for translating to Vera Aulenbach

German version here.

Photos and text by Matthias Coers