London could learn a lot from activist renters in Berlin who want to ban big landlords

Investment in the city is a good thing, but it’s not an unqualified boon, and as Berlin has shown, it’s possible to put citizens’ needs above commercial interests without terrible consequences

Renters in Berlin, fed up with ever-increasing housing costs, are determined to put an end to the problem.

Activists are gathering signatures that will allow them to hold a referendum on new laws banning big landlords from the German capital.

They need 20,000 names to make it onto the ballot, and they’re almost certainly going to get them – opinion polls have, unsurprisingly, shown that the proposed measure is very popular among the city’s voters.

The outcome, it’s hoped, will be that tenants have more control over rents, as well as more social housing.

If such a move were proposed in London, it would be equally popular among the millions who hand over half or more of their pay cheque each month just to keep a roof over their heads.

Rents in London have been climbing steadily over recent years, reaching frankly incredible levels – the average asking rent in the capital hit £2,034 in the last quarter of 2018 – and is now pushing young people out of the the city, despite the job opportunities and cultural benefits.

The most immediately pressing concern for the majority of tenants in London is probably the relationship they have with their landlord. In the UK, landlords can raise rent around once a year, and in my time renting flats of varying quality across many of London’s boroughs, this happened without fail. Sometimes I was able to negotiate a slightly smaller hike, usually I gave in rather than go through the trauma of househunting – not to mention coming up with a massive deposit.

Meanwhile, the rent problem in London is exacerbated by the massive obstacles most people face in getting onto the property ladder. While the city’s housing market has cooled somewhat, the average property still costs almost £500,000. The average salary in London is around £35,000, making home ownership a pipe dream for anyone who wants to stay in the city.

So Londoners find themselves trapped – unaffordable housing forcing them to rent, pushing rents up, which means they can save only meagre amounts, with little to no hope of getting a deposit together.

Of course, there are a few important differences between the rental situation in Berlin and London. For starters, despite the backlash against landlords, rents are much more manageable in the German city, and laws around renting tend to favour the tenant.

The problem in Berlin is linked to the prevalence of huge property companies, which campaigners say are driving up costs. In London, most private landlords will own a few properties at most.

However, the movement in Berlin shows that action can and should be taken when rent becomes a burden that prevents people achieving their goals, be that buying their own home some day or just being able to save for a holiday.

Berlin’s would-be rent reformers have the benefit of success in previous campaigns. Last year, Google backed down from plans to build a massive new campus in the city’s Kreuzberg district, after protests predicated on fears that an influx of wealthy tech workers would push property prices even higher.

London has a similar problem – foreign investors have plunged millions into the city’s property market in recent years, snapping up homes that could have gone to first-time buyers, and pushing up prices for the rest of us at the same time.

This isn’t new information, but despite the fact that the issue is plain to see, there’s been no real attempt at tackling the problem.

Obviously, investment in the city is a good thing, but it’s not an unqualified boon, and as Berlin’s thanks-but-no-thanks response to Google shows, it’s possible to put citizens’ needs and wishes above commercial interests with no terrible consequences.

The main problem in London is that there are so many issues affecting renters – the expense, all the external market forces that keep pushing costs up, and the freedom landlords have to hike costs.

If there was a coordinated effort made towards addressing just one of these problems, say introducing laws restricting the power landlords have over their tenants, I have no doubt the support for it already exists in London.