Il mercato immobiliare tedesco è “contaminato” dal diffuso razzismo – DW – 13/12/2025
https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-housing-market-contaminated-by-widespread-racism/a-75108517?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPMjc1MjU0NjkyNTk4Mjc5AAEe9nYdNTR2fjBihZRPaVLn_lkORzjymrTDzNS8coYtl5TjO71frojfZ8ut9po_aem_FwoHe0e8vpJ1drzGQEXk2g
di jarvedttudd
14 commenti
All housing markets are in a squeeze pretty regardless who you are unless of course you have money.
That’s a good article. Opened my eyes a little bit. As a white German, I don’t notice that myself, so it’s good to be informed.
As soon as there is scarcity of apartments there will be discrimination against race , citizenship, sex or age.
When you have 80 applicants you select that one that you personally believe is easier to live with.
My friend, who is Ukrainian, has a permanent contract with a good paying job. Has been living here since the war started and can communicate relatively fluent in German. He hasn’t been able to find an apartment of his own and is still sharing living space with other Ukrainians who escaped when the war started.
I have always suspected this to be the reason. This finding just confirms it.
It starts with the name. If it sounds foreign you are already facing more obstacles.
Its true. Many of my friends with non german names struggle to find a place to live
Yeah, I had a friend at university, she had a degree in German with top grades and was on her way to become a teacher, never met a person who spoke a clearer and more beautiful German, she easily was better than me.
But she had a Turkish surname which led to ~75% of landlords to end the phone call as soon as she introduced herself.
She fixed that by not telling her name at the start und smiling away the “Oh your German is actually great, didn’t think that was possible with that name haha…”
This is terrible, but unfortunately not surprising. The tighter the housing market, the easier it is for property owners/managers to turn away people based on their background. If we had (a lot more) supply and it actually shifted to a renters market, this would greatly alleviate the power of landlords to discriminate. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll ever manage to build all the necessary housing.
Is it really racism though? A landlord can be the most non racist person ever, but when renting an apartment a landlord thinks about their business and chooses what is best for their it.
A single German employed banker will always be better than an immigrant family with kids living on welfare for example.
The landlord looks after their business not social justice.
This is also creating market bubble on rents, as a foreigner I ended up paying extremely high rent because not everyone was willing to rent me their apartment. I don’t judge them though, I don’t even know German 😀
Apartments are scarce, and tenants’ rights in Germany are very strong.
From a landlord’s perspective, a rental contract is a long-term contractual obligation that cannot be unilaterally terminated and comes with significant legal and financial risks. Choosing a tenant can therefore amount to a commitment for potentially many years.
For this reason, it is essential to ensure that a tenant is financially reliable and that communication works smoothly. The latter is considerably easier when there is a shared language and a familiar cultural context. This also helps establish a basic level of trust before entering into such a far-reaching legal and financial relationship.
You can call that racism. For me it’s minimizing risk and an adjustment to a legally heavily regulated market.
Then they should tell those people who misbehave, talking loudly on their phones in front of the house, cooking with their apartment doors open so that the whole stairwell stinks of boiled bones, sweet potatoes, bananas, and who knows what else for days. I have people like that in my building; I feel nauseous every day when I go into the stairwell. That’s the reason nobody is renting to them.
Not surprising. Casual racism is a separate problem from apartment scarcity, and these practicing the first just mix these two together and say it’s normal.
Bei unseren türkischen und anderen Mitbürgern wird die Diskriminierung einfach so hingenommen geschweige denn angesprochen, bei anderen Namen und Ethnien wäre der Aufschrei gross und man käme zum Schutz derer direkt mit Gesetzesänderungen bzw Verschärfungen um die Ecke, wie verlogen.