Untergiesing has been considered a working-class borough in the past decades, one at which families could live at and pay reasonable rent, but this is gradually changing, merkur.de reports today, August 1, 2016. Rents of up to €20 rent per square metre are becoming more and more common for newly renovated apartments. “Is this normal?” Johannes Welte of merkur.de asks in his article.

As soon as a tenant moves out, the apartments are usually being renovated and “upgraded” by the owner. Rents for tenants already living in an apartment can’t be raised above the city’s “Mietspiegel”. For a 58 square metre apartment a tenant already living there has to pay between €12.27 up to €15.66, but if somebody is renting an apartment there for the first time the rent raises to €19.58. Those new, higher rents then become part of the “Mietspiegel” to follow and thereby also raise all future rents. Such raises are slowly pushing the working class out of the Untergiesing borough.

Simple, old houses are being renovated and upgraded, consequently wealthier families can move into the freshly renovated flats, the rent of people already living in another apartment of the house raises slowly, but steadily and the circle continues. As a consequence families are often forced to rent smaller apartments in other boroughs of the Bavarian capital. Similar thing are happening in bigger cities throughout the country, as bild.de reported yesterday in a post about the “average German family”.

The map below shows where Untergiesing-Harlaching is located.