The most important number in the new rent index is 10.29 euros.

That's how much tenants now have to pay monthly for the square meter of an average apartment in Frankfurt.

Compared to the last survey in 2018, this is an increase of 9.9 percent.

At that time, one square meter of a rental apartment in Frankfurt cost 9.36 euros.

The annual increase is 2.4 percent.

The newly agreed rents have risen particularly sharply.

Rainer Schulz

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The magistrate approved the current rent index on Monday, it will come into force on June 1st and will replace the previous figures.

However, the majority of the rent index commission, in which tenants' and landlords' associations are represented, has refused to give their consent.

Four out of seven trade associations, including all landlord associations and the Tenants Help Tenants Association, do not recognize the rent index.

But that doesn't matter for the effectiveness.

"The rent index is a distorted mirror"

The landlord associations Haus & Grund and VdW Südwest, for example, criticize methodological weaknesses and a restrictive approach to the equipment features of an apartment.

"For many well-equipped apartments, the rent index for 2022 means lower rents than before because there are no surcharges," criticize Jürgen Conzelmann and Gregor Weil from Haus & Grund.

Because the equipment is not sufficiently differentiated, all apartments are thrown into the same pot.

The result: the basic rent also increases for poorly equipped apartments.

Axelexpanding, board member of VdW Südwest, criticizes that energetic renovations are not sufficiently taken into account.

“The rent index in the version now available is a distorted mirror.

In no way does it do justice to the diversity of the market.”

The figures are revised every four years and provide information on the comparative rent customary in the area.

The rent index is intended to reflect the market rent.

Therefore, only those tenancies that have been newly concluded or changed are included.

The data basis has been adjusted: Whereas it used to be the case that only new leases or leases adjusted in the past four years were taken into account, this period has now been extended to six years.

Tight housing market

Frankfurt has a qualified rent index that was created using scientific methods by the Darmstadt Institute for Housing and the Environment and the market research institute Ifak from Taunusstein.

3,500 households were asked about the type, size, equipment, condition and location of the apartment they rented.

In addition, information was obtained in writing from the landlords in more than 1,100 cases.

"Frankfurt is still a tight housing market," says Mike Josef (SPD), Head of Planning.

The many new buildings in recent years have provided some relief, but they have also shaped the rental market in terms of equipment and price level.

Modernized existing apartments are more expensive than apartments with equipment typical of the building age.

A rent index must show this in a differentiated manner, which has been achieved with the present instrument.

The rent index will soon be available in the housing office, in bookshops, in the citizen registration offices, in the tourist information and from the associations represented in the rent index commission.

It can also be ordered from mietspiegel@stadt-frankfurt.de.

The rent index calculator at www.frankfurt.de/mietspiegel-rechner will be updated soon.