Berlin's rent cap calculator

How our calculator works —

Simply enter your data and our rent cap calculator will calculate the rent cap for your flat or house.

Among others our calculator considers:

The location quality.

Whether your flat has a high-end bathroom.

Whether your flat has a built in kitchen.

Whether your flat has high-end flooring.

Whether your flat has low energy consumption.

Just try it out.

Basic Facts —

Rent Cap in Berlin

(A new law to limit rents in the housing sector)

Berlin enters new legal territory with the planned rent cap.
Around 3.7 Million people live in Berlin right now, each year the number rises by 40.000.
According to the rent index of the Berlin Senate Derpartment for Urban Development there are 1.906.400 properties. The majority of those are rented estates, around 1.6 million, this leads to a share of 85 %.

Coming into Effect —

With retroactive effect from the effective date of 18 June 2019, the rents of almost 1.5 million existing apartments in Berlin will be frozen for five years. The law was passed by the Berlin House of Representatives on 30 January and came into force on 23 February 2020. A reduction of rents that were already excessive on the effective date of 18 June 2019 is only possible nine months after the law comes into force, i.e. from 23 November 2020.

When the term rent is used in the following text, it refers to the net cold rent, i.e. without the operating costs and without heating and hot water costs.

Average Rent —

Compared to Hamburg and Munich, Berlin’s rents are still lower on average. In the other cities, rents have traditionally been at a high level for some time.
Nationwide, rents, but also property prices, have risen sharply. According to the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development, rents have risen by 18.1 % over the past five years, or an average of 3.3 % per year. Supply rents have even increased by 30.5 % or 5.5 % annually over the last five years. The main problem for Berliners is new rentals, where the average net cold rent is €10 /m². While rents have risen sharply, the income of Berliners has hardly increased at all. The Senate Department for Urban Development has calculated that 44 % of the net household income must now be spent when moving into a new apartment. To counteract all too rapid changes in urban society and prevent social inequality, the current government in Berlin wants to introduce the rent cap.

In order to counteract the trend of rapid rent increases, landlords will not be allowed to charge more than before when re-letting a property once the law comes into force. The upper limit depends on the year of construction, the location of the apartment and its size (see table)

When is a landlord allowed to raise the rent? —

The rent cap applies to 1.5 million apartments (of the total of 1.9 million in Berlin). This applies to all rental agreements that already existed on the effective date 18 July 2019 and still exist. This does not apply to publicly subsidised housing, owner-occupied housing, dormitory apartments and new buildings that were ready for occupancy for the first time since January 2014. This also includes attic flats that were subsequently added to the house. In the case of apartments where the previous rent was less than €5 /m², the rent may be increased by a maximum of €1 to up to €5.02 /m² on re-letting, provided that modern equipment is available.

A modern furnishing is present if at least three of the following features are present:

• easy accessible lift
• fitted kitchen
• high-quality sanitary equipment
• high-quality flooring in the vast majority of living spaces
• energy consumption characteristic value of less than 120 kWh/(m² a)

Another exception are detached or semi-detached houses. These can be rented at a 10 % higher price.

You can easily calculate the exact impact on your apartment with our rent cap calculator. The rent cap calculator works for all apartments in Berlin.

Landlords can increase rents by 1.3 % from 2022 to compensate for inflation. However, the rent must remain below the permissible rent cap. This regulation is also known as a breathing cap.
Modernisation costs may still be passed on to the tenant, but only €1 per square metre per month. Recognized modernizations include measures to which the landlord is obliged by law. Furthermore, measures apply: for thermal insulation, the use of renewable energies, energy-efficient window replacement, heating system replacement, elevator installation or measures for barrier-free access.

The passing on of costs incurred by luxury renovations is excluded. Other modernization costs must be notified in advance to the responsible authorities. Funding programmes are available for projects that promote barrier-free access or include energy-efficient construction work.

A further 13.4 % may be added to these values, as it is assumed that income has risen accordingly since then.
For apartments in a simple location, there is a discount of 28 cents/m² on the rents in the rental table, for apartments in a medium location, nine cents/m² are deducted and 74 cents/m² are added for apartments in good locations. You can take a look at the location evaluation here.

Hardship clause protects landlords from permanent losses —

In cases of economic hardship of landlords, rent increases may be approved if this is absolutely necessary to avoid endangering the substance and permanent losses. Approved rent increases above the upper rent limits are cushioned by a rent subsidy. The rent subsidy may not exceed the amount exceeding the rent ceiling. This subsidy can be applied for at the Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB)

Rights of the tenants become effective without application —

Tenants do not normally need to take action to have their rights become effective.
Landlords must provide tenants with information on the circumstances relevant to the calculation of the rent cap, without being asked, within two months of this Act coming into force and before a new rental agreement is concluded. Once the rent cap comes into force, it is generally prohibited to demand a higher rent than the rent on the effective date (19.06.2019).

Nine months after entry into force, a ban on excessive rents becomes effective —

Tenants do not normally have to become active for their rights to become effective.

Because from 23 November 2020, excessive rents will be reduced.

Landlords must now also reduce rents in current tenancies on their own initiative if they exceed the fixed upper limits by more than 20 percent. Tenants should therefore now examine whether they are entitled to a rent reduction.

If landlords do not act and do not reduce the rent, tenants should take action. No notice from the Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing is required for the reduction, but it can be helpful. Since the responsible Senate Administration can take all measures necessary to enforce the reduction claim, it should be involved if the landlord rejects the reduction request.

Resistance —

The law for rent limitation in housing in Berlin (MietenWoG Bln), the so-called rent cap, came into force on 23.02.2020. Various courts have already passed judgements. However, these decisions do not affect the applicability of the law, i.e. the law is valid and must be observed.
According to the Federal Constitutional Court, we expect a decision on the rent cap in the second quarter of 2021. This is a long period of legal uncertainty for tenants and landlords.
The Berlin Tenants' Association therefore advises tenants to keep rents that have not been paid in relation to the new law saved in their bank account.

Berlin rent index table —

Comparable rents customary in the location (effective date 01.09.2018) net cold rent in Euro per square meter monthly

For apartments in old buildings (ready for occupancy until 1918 and 1919 to 1949) without collective heating, without bathroom, with WC in the apartment (IWC), the local comparative rent per square meter of living space is 2.20 euros per month less than the amounts shown in column 1 for ready for occupancy until 1918*** or column 2 for ready for occupancy 1919 to 1949***.

For apartments in old buildings (ready for occupancy until 1918) with collective heating or with bathroom, with toilet in the apartment (IWC), the local comparative rent per square metre of living space is 1.41 euros per month below the amounts shown in column 1***.

For apartments in old buildings (ready for occupancy from 1919 to 1949) with collective heating or with a bath, with a WC in the apartment (IWC), the customary local comparative rent per square meter of living space is 0.43 euros per month below the amounts in column 2***.

For newly built flats (ready for occupancy 1950 to 1964) with collective heating or with bath, with WC in the flat (IWC), the customary local comparative rent per square metre of living space is 1.45 euros per month below the amounts in column 3***.

+ The allocation of West-Staakens is based on the area status 02.10.1990. The allocation of the districts is based on the area status 31.12.2000 before the area reform (see explanation under No. 3)

In the case of empty spaces, there was not a sufficient number of rental values to make a reliable statement (less than 10 rental values).

The data marked with * and ** have only limited significance due to the small number of rental values collected (* = 15 - 29 rental values, ** = 10 - 14 rental values). These deductions can therefore not be assigned to the application area of the qualified representative list of rents. The table fields show the respective mean value (median) and the 3/4 range

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