One in three German tenants financially overburdened, new study finds

One in three tenant households in Germany is financially overburdened by housing costs. That is the central finding of a study published this week by the Institute for Housing and the Environment (IWU) in Darmstadt, commissioned by the German Tenants' Association (DMB) and based on 2022 Microcensus data updated to 2024 figures.

The numbers are stark. Around 3.2 million tenant households spend more than 40% of their net income on housing. A further 3.4 million spend between 30% and 40%. Combined, that represents 6.6 million households — roughly one in three of Germany's approximately 20 million tenant households — carrying a burden that the IWU and DMB classify as unsustainable. At the extreme end, the bottom 10% of the income distribution face an average housing cost burden of 60%.