Renting in Europe
Discussions focus on the viability of lifelong renting for salaried individuals in European countries, especially Germany, where tenant protections, rent controls, and cultural norms make it a stable alternative to home ownership compared to places like the US.
Activity Over Time
Top Contributors
Keywords
Sample Comments
Exists there a country in Europe where housing is not hopeless for a salaried non-owning individual?
Germans mostly rent and it's fine. Because they have tenant protection laws.
In Germany, the majority of people rent apartments, so yes, depending on where you live in the world there is a large overlap.
Something like 40% of Americans rent --- similar percentages in Europe, and in some major EU countries, like Germany, more people rent than own. Having a home and financing that home are orthogonal concerns.
Not really. In EU, 70 % of population owns, while 30 % rents:https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/digpub/housing/bloc-1a.h...
It is normal in Germany & even more so in the big cities like Berlin for people to rent their whole lives - there are a lot of tenants protections & rent control here that make that less risky.
All those things you mentioned in your last paragraph are illegal in Germany (or at least in Berlin). You just cant easily compare between countries like that - it can very well be that it "always" makes sense to buy in England because the rules ensure it while the opposite is true in another country.The rental/real estate markets work differently in Austria and Germany and that's (partially) why home ownership patterns in those countries are so different to England's
To offer another very diverging datapoint: In Germany, renting is the norm, though owning something you aspire to, either as a home you plan to spend the rest of your life in (thus protecting you against market troubles) or an inflation-safe part of an investment portfolio. Speculation on home prices is virtually unknown (and there was no housing bubble).
Due to renter-friendly laws, home ownership is not as culturally ingrained in Germany as elsewhere. Many people who could afford buying simply choose not to.
Not sure if this is case in Germany, but in many european countries there are huge property holdings owned by cities or goverment.In my case (Brno, Czech rep.) the city is by far largest landlord, holding double digits of available housing. Most of those places have very low rent, but it is hard to get the place.