Tenants of apartments in Berlin were offered to buy furniture for 25 thousand euros Applicants for free living space were forced to buy furniture for a disproportionate cost, Bloomberg writes.
In one of the announcements for renting a one-room apartment on the ImmoScout24 website, the owner asked to buy furniture for 25 thousand euros (more than 2 million rubles). It included a kitchen set, TV, sofa, bed and garden accessories. The payment for the rent itself was 930 euros (about 76.7 thousand rubles) per month. The announcement also stated that the amount was not negotiable.
Tenants note that they are often asked to purchase furniture and appliances in order to sign a lease. There is little furniture in rented apartments in Berlin, the agency notes; basic furnishings, sometimes even household appliances, are often missing. Therefore, future tenants have to rent apartments with the purchase of furniture, then reselling the property to the next tenant. However, the rapidly growing demand in the rental market in the city has led to the emergence of such unusual deal terms for the first time.
In Berlin, it is illegal to sell furniture for more than 50 percent more than its value, but it can be risky for a tenant to challenge such a condition: he may lose in court or legal costs may not pay off. “People are offering to pay thousands of euros for furniture that costs much less. It's crazy, ”said Ioannis Tsakris, CEO of Black Label Properties. In this case, landlords use a loophole. They buy several pieces of furniture for an otherwise empty apartment, which by law allows them to charge a surcharge, often in excess of the allowed limit (2 percent of the monthly fee), said Schlun & Elseven lawyer Matthias Wurm.
According to the data online rental service Immowelt, the price of renting an apartment in Berlin has increased by 42 percent in five years, and by 5 percent in 2021. “The market is now so tight that some people are trying to capitalize on this difficult situation,” said Anna Kuznetsova, CEO of First Citiz Berlin. According to her, out of hundreds of advertisements, several will be really insane.
Berliners have repeatedly resented the high cost of renting apartments. In June, this forced the Deutsche Wohnen und Co. Enteignen to gather a meeting at the building of the Ministry of the Interior of the city. They demanded the socialization (transfer to public ownership) of apartments that belong to large rentiers. In response, the city administration began to work out a plan to buy apartments from large owners on the residential rental market.