Around 14 percent of tenants live in furnished apartments. A study commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Justice takes a closer look at this market segment, which is mainly populated by private landlords.
In the apartments advertised by landlords, the proportion of furnished apartments has increased significantly. This emerges from an investigation by the consulting firm Oxford Economics on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Justice. In January 2013, around 19 percent of the apartments advertised were still furnished; according to the information, their share reached almost 27 percent in October 2022. According to the authors of the study, this is probably also due to the fact that many unfurnished apartments are no longer publicly offered, “but are passed on to friends, acquaintances or tenants on a waiting list”.
Around two thirds of the furnished apartments are therefore offered by private individuals. Almost every tenth furnished apartment belongs to a housing association. According to the information, around six percent of the furnished apartments are owned by a municipality or a municipal housing company. The share of other private companies is 4.7 percent. Universities and student unions account for 3.3 percent.
A survey of users of furnished living space conducted for the study showed that 72 percent of them lived in an apartment, 15 percent in a shared apartment and 13 percent in a furnished single-family house or semi-detached house.
turnover has increased
When evaluating the advertisements, the authors also found that fluctuation in the furnished apartments has increased in recent years. “So it could well be that the landlords of furnished living space have reacted to the introduction of the rental price brake by trying to only rent for temporary use because this form of rental is not covered by the rental price brake,” the study continues.
According to the Federal Ministry of Justice, the investigation did not provide any evidence of a systematic conversion of empty apartments into furnished rental apartments after the introduction of the rental price brake. In addition, it has been shown that there are certain uncertainties in legal practice as to when the exception under tenancy law of renting apartments for temporary use is applicable. The possibilities for determining the local comparative rent for furnished apartments could also be improved. The ministry will now examine the extent to which legislative measures would make sense here on the basis of the investigation.
According to the study, around 51 percent of the German population aged 18 and over lived in rented accommodation last year. According to the study, which is based, among other things, on a representative survey, 14 percent of the rental apartments were partially or fully furnished by the landlord. The proportion of municipalities with a high proportion of advertisements for furnished apartments in southern Germany is particularly high. One reason for renting furnished apartments is that the owners want to secure short-term access to the apartment – for example when the children move in while they are studying, as a place of residence in old age or after returning from abroad.
Around 21.20 euros per square meter
Essential furnishings such as a kitchen, cupboards, tables, lamps, chairs and a bed can be found in more than half of these apartments. The proportion of apartments with additional items, including cutlery and crockery, is therefore just under a third. Only about twelve percent of the tenants of furnished apartments surveyed were provided with bed linen.
According to an analysis by Oxford Economics, asking rents for furnished apartments rose by around 50 percent to around EUR 21.20 per square meter in the period under review, compared to an increase of around 38 percent to EUR 9.7 per square meter for advertised unfurnished apartments. Since some of the furnished offers are not net cold rents but total rents, this is probably partly due to increased ancillary costs.
Source: Stern
