I’m not too familiar with the German situation, but afaik, they have long term rent contracts with relatively low rent, where the landlord can’t just hike the rent because “the market conditions have changed” or at least not too much, you can’t just evict someone, because you feel like it, people live in the same flat they have rented for 30-40 years. Renting such flats is often cheaper than paying a mortgage.
Housing supply is adequate in Germany and thus low rent costs. Germans also contribute more money to their pensions so when they reach retirement they have a lot of cash. Lithuanians lock most of their wealth in their properties. Two different philosophies.
That is why German retirees travel all around the world and Lithuanian babushkas barely have anything to eat but have 3 bedroom flat and land in some village.
Different culture influenced by WWII, many houses were destroyed, the government started mass bullding new ones, with possibility of affordable long term rent. This stuck with Germans to these days and tenants protection laws are very strong, so there’s not always an incentive to actually buy a home. Similar to Netherlands, even though they say it’s 72% it seems a a bit bizarre as for example Amsterdam has approx 40% of housing supply classified as social housing, meaning you can get a decent flat at a rate that will be far below a mortgage with a contract where you can live your whole life in a place you would otherwise not be able to afford.
Now owning a house does not make you homeless, it is just that the laws are different where it enables you to rent your whole life at a reasonable price.
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Renting is affordable.
I’m not too familiar with the German situation, but afaik, they have long term rent contracts with relatively low rent, where the landlord can’t just hike the rent because “the market conditions have changed” or at least not too much, you can’t just evict someone, because you feel like it, people live in the same flat they have rented for 30-40 years. Renting such flats is often cheaper than paying a mortgage.
Housing supply is adequate in Germany and thus low rent costs. Germans also contribute more money to their pensions so when they reach retirement they have a lot of cash. Lithuanians lock most of their wealth in their properties. Two different philosophies.
That is why German retirees travel all around the world and Lithuanian babushkas barely have anything to eat but have 3 bedroom flat and land in some village.
Different culture influenced by WWII, many houses were destroyed, the government started mass bullding new ones, with possibility of affordable long term rent. This stuck with Germans to these days and tenants protection laws are very strong, so there’s not always an incentive to actually buy a home. Similar to Netherlands, even though they say it’s 72% it seems a a bit bizarre as for example Amsterdam has approx 40% of housing supply classified as social housing, meaning you can get a decent flat at a rate that will be far below a mortgage with a contract where you can live your whole life in a place you would otherwise not be able to afford.
Now owning a house does not make you homeless, it is just that the laws are different where it enables you to rent your whole life at a reasonable price.