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Comment by ArmandGrillet | Hacker News Reader

The rents in Kreuzberg already increased a lot this past decade: https://guthmann-estate.com/marketreport/micro-market-report...

Gentrification is a problem, but long time renters in Germany are really having it good. An example of how does the system works here: I pay twice as much as some German friends living in my district because my parents didn't sign me up in a union 20 years ago. I'm OK with that, it's the game, but refusing new buildings/companies to keep the rents low is BS.

Kreuzberg is very well located, Berlin is huge, time to accept that 1989 was a long time ago.

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I don't understand this new mentality that "Gentrification is a problem," companies and wealthier people moving in makes everyone in the area more wealthy. The problem of affordable housing has less to do with those companies moving in and more to do with local real estate monopolies that lobby against rezoning for residential and expanding building permits. That's basically the bay area in a nutshell. People complain about the lack of affordable housing, yet building new residential areas is a tapestry of red tape. And let's face it, that's largely to protect real estate investors that don't want prices to come down.

I would like to see bigger companies that move new offices to areas to use their weight to push for more housing developments and permits as part of their local agreements. I think that would go a long way (though still short) in helping the situation.

> makes everyone in the area more wealthy

I'm as yimby as they come, but I'm not sure this is true for everyone. It does mean that the local burger joint can charge more for hamburgers and that the line cooks can plausibly negotiate for higher pay. But its a pretty strong statement that this is true for everyone.

> real estate monopolies

In what areas are even 25% of residences owned by a single entity? In what areas are 25% of rental residences being offered by a single entity?

> People complain about the lack of affordable housing, yet building new residential areas is a tapestry of red tape.

True

Because Germany used to be different; if you had a long-term contract from 90s that e.g. stated your rent was 300 EUR/month, there was very limited room for any increases (basically only when your house went through some kind of renovation or the energy etc. costs rose significantly). So somebody who lives long-term in that neighborhood pays e.g. 400 EUR/month, whereas new tenants pay 1500EUR/month for the same. It's pretty normal in the US to see these kinds of yearly increases, but not in EU outside UK and EEU.

Most Finnish rent contracts have a clause that allows the renter to adjust (i.e. increase) the rent yearly by a given percentage (usually according to a cost of living index).

companies and wealthier people moving in makes everyone in the area more wealthy.

This would only be true if everyone owned their own residences and profited from the increase in land values. In reality, the inhabitants of gentrifying neighborhoods are usually just evicted from their homes so the owners can sell to developers, and they end up worse off than they were before.

> wealthier people moving in makes everyone in the area more wealthy

Wealthier people buy up houses and kick out residents living there since decades.

Wealthier people moving in does not mean that pensioners or factory workers will suddenly earn engineer wages.

Wealthier people usually even lead to a reduction of apartments, as they combine smaller apartments to a bigger one. Increasing density is not always possible and often connected with a reduction of life quality (e.g. less green)

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