Winter comes and brings price freezing for German landlords.

An agreement between the Social Democrats, the Left and the Greens has been reached after several months of negotiations and is designed to ease the burden on tenants. As a result of the real estate boom, rental prices in Berlin have doubled in the last decade.

The agreement requires that, Berlin authorities "freeze" the price of rental housing in the capital for five years. The initiative has to be approved by Parliament and if done so, the bill will enter into force in the first quarter of 2020.

Under the new rules, the upper limit for rental price is €9.8 per sq.m per month, excluding utilities. Now, it is equal to €11.6 per sq. m. per month, as provided by real estate portal Immowelt. The city’s new rules relate to more than 1.5 million real estate and do not affect social housing, dormitories and new buildings, which were put into operation from January 1, 2014. If the property is renovated, the cost of renting it can be increased by one euro per sq. m.

By implementing the law, the authorities try to struggle with rising housing prices in one of Germany’s hottest real estate markets. On the other hand, It is heavily criticized by German homeowners, who think it will worsen the deficit of apartments in Berlin