© dpa
Tenants of the seven state-owned housing companies receive more support if they wish to move to a smaller apartment.
According to the Verband Berlin-Brandenburgischer Wohnungsunternehmen (Association of Berlin-Brandenburg Housing Companies, BBU), companies will now make up to three offers for smaller units within a year to anyone whose own apartment has become too large, for example due to a change in living circumstances. The new apartment is then at least one room and at least ten square meters smaller than the previous one.
"It is important to note that the transfer of apartments will initially only take place within the portfolio of the respective company, not between the seven companies," the BBU added. "This benefits not only the tenants themselves, but also Berlin: larger apartments that become vacant and for which there is particularly high demand can be placed with households that urgently need more space."
The new apartment will be offered at the local comparative rent without a new tenant surcharge, it said. The move will be coordinated in such a way that there is no double burden. The offer will ensure that apartments are better suited to people's living situations, Berlin's Building Senator Christian Gaebler (SPD) said. In 2022, the average living space per household in Berlin was just under 75 square meters, according to data from the Berlin-Brandenburg Statistical Office. Around half of the almost 1.9 million households in the capital were single households. Almost one in seven of them lived on at least 80 square meters.