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For months now, people have been spending more time at home than ever in recent history.

During the pandemic, your own four walls have become the absolute center of life.

But by no means all Germans can spread out over spacious living areas.

While some sections of the population literally live big, others live very cramped - and even have dwindling prospects of improving their situation.

In fact, the average living space per capita in Germany has risen steadily over the past decades.

In 1991 it was just under 35 square meters, currently it is around 47 square meters.

Newly built apartments became more and more spacious, but above all newly built single-family houses.

However, in a current study, the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW) has found that the trend is coming to a standstill.

Even more: In regions that are in high demand, the per capita area is even falling.

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"Since the beginning of the ongoing real estate boom in 2010, the increase in average living space has slowed," write the housing market experts at IW.

However, this slowdown is solely due to the development of rental apartments.

Six percent less living space than ten years ago

In major cities and metropolitan areas, landlords have increased rents, in some cases significantly, in recent years.

And tenants react: "The average number of household members is increasing, since moving to a new, larger apartment is often associated with significantly higher costs and sometimes does not happen," according to the IW experts.

In other words, the more the prices go up, the less often people decide to move, even if the family gets bigger.

Tenants stay where they are more often - what economists also call the “lock-in effect”.

Source: WORLD infographic

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The IW observes increasingly cramped conditions in large cities: “The proportion of tenants who have less than one living space available has risen significantly again in the past decade, after having previously declined continuously.” Today, tenants in large cities have six percent less space available than ten years ago.

The rental price development is not the only reason for the decline or growth in residential space, however.

Population structure, demographics and immigration also play a role.

For example, there are more and more single households - their share rose nationwide between 1990 and 2018 from 34 to 42 percent.

And singles tend to have a slightly higher per capita land consumption than multi-person households.

Map shows who has how much space where

On the other hand, there was a strong migration to Germany between 2010 and 2018 - not only from asylum seekers and war refugees, but also from other EU countries and other countries.

The IW recorded an increasing proportion of tenants with a migration background, from 25 to 32 percent.

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And especially in the cities.

The effects complement or neutralize each other, but the bottom line is that the development is clear: Tenants have less space available, while owner households can look forward to more and more space.

Source: WORLD infographic

But where do you stand in comparison to other households in Germany?

Especially in comparison to your own population group - pensioners, single people, owners, tenants?

The IW Cologne has now published an interactive living space calculator in which parameters such as household size, income class and type of living can be entered and then you can see where you are in your reference group, whether it is at the lower or the upper end of the area pyramid.

The IW used data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) as the basis for the calculations.

Within the total population, one belongs to the top 50 percent with a living space of more than 41 square meters per capita.

Since this is a median value, it deviates from the general average of 47 square meters mentioned above.

The median value allows a better comparison.

Remanence effect causes the area to suddenly double

From 83 square meters per capita, you are even among the top ten percent.

However, if you live alone, which applies to 21 percent of the population, only eleven percent live in less than 41 square meters - proof of the relatively high space consumption by single households.

If the singles are also owners, they can look forward to a particularly large amount of living space.

Homeowners live on average in 125 square meters of apartments, tenants on 75 square meters - per capita it is 48 square meters for owners and 35 for tenants.

In addition to the aforementioned lock-in effect, IW expert Pekka Sakker is also increasingly observing another effect: the so-called remanence effect.

This occurs when families buy a single-family house, the children move out at some point and the parents stay in it.

Often one parent stays in the house after the partner dies.

Every time the living space per capita doubles.

“From the age of 50, the average living space per capita increases significantly,” says Sakker.

Few rural residents would move to the city

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Understandably, one does not want to miss the comfortable living situation in old age.

Only a minority of people currently living in the country - mostly in their own homes - would move to the city for reasons of age, as a recent survey by the German Institute for Old Age Provision (DIA) shows.

Two thirds are therefore not ready to do so.

In the case of those over 50, around three quarters can no longer imagine a change in their living situation due to their age.

And since aging is increasing, the consumption of living space in this population group is likely to continue to grow in the next few years.

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