Housing: Evictions are increasing | STERN.de

Last year, tens of thousands of people had to vacate their homes because of rent arrears, among other things. This emerges from statistics that the Ministry of Justice released in response to a question from the Left in the Bundestag and which is available to the German Press Agency in Berlin. Accordingly, there were more than 30,200 evictions from apartments and other spaces in 2023 – an increase of more than 1,000 compared to the previous year.

Rent arrears are the most common cause of losing your home. The Left’s rental and housing construction expert, Caren Lay, therefore called for better protection against dismissal and capped rents. “More and more people are falling victim to the rent madness, can no longer pay the rent, are being evicted and evicted,” she told the dpa. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) promised to place greater limits on rent increases. “But nothing happened.” Nothing of the announced social tenancy law has been implemented.

According to the information, most evictions were carried out in the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (8,998), followed by Bavaria (2,774), Lower Saxony (2,501) and Saxony (2,278). Only in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein did the numbers fall slightly compared to the previous year. In 2022 there were around 29,000 evictions nationwide.

The left criticized that rent arrears are often triggered by delays in social benefits such as housing benefit and accommodation costs. This can quickly result in two months’ rent being in arrears, which is a reason for termination.