45
Germany proves that private renting can work better than it does in Britain
(www.theguardian.com)
News/Interesting Stories/Beautiful Pictures from Europe 🇪🇺
(Current banner: Thunder mountain, Germany, 🇩🇪 ) Feel free to post submissions for banner pictures
(This list is obviously incomplete, but it will get expanded when necessary)
Also check out !yurop@lemm.ee
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Millions of German renters belong to tenant organisations, affording them greater influence over landlords, and there have been limits on in-tenancy rent rises.
The UK recently surpassed Norway to become the European country in which the greatest proportion of households now have to spend more than 40% of their disposable income on mortgage and rent – what economists call “housing overburden”.
It is a phrase that does not quite do justice to the life-limiting impact of in effect spending close to half your time at work toiling for your landlord, leaving less for leisure, making plans for the future and for retirement.
And that is before we consider London, where nearly one in three people live in private rented homes, and the best apartments are more expensive a square foot than any city in Europe – including Paris, Rome and Amsterdam, according to the property agent Savills.
In Lisbon, workers such as Margarida Custódio are living with the consequences of deregulation, a pandemic-era drive to attract “digital nomads” and more holiday rentals.
And there are signs of a solution to Britain’s rent problem in Austria, where a quarter of homes are social housing, compared with 17% in England and Wales, and 23% in Scotland.
The original article contains 966 words, the summary contains 204 words. Saved 79%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!