Berlin’s affordable housing shortage is hitting younger and older people the hardest. They have to spend an above-average share of their income on housing. This is the conclusion of the Social Housing Monitor 2026, which the Pestel Institute presented together with the “Social Housing” alliance in Berlin on Thursday.

The alliance includes the German Tenants’ Association, the Construction Industry Union (IG BAU), Caritas services for people with disabilities and psychiatry, as well as representatives from the construction industry. “To reduce the housing deficit by 2030, Berlin would need to build around 98,000 new apartments,” says Matthias Günther, study director at the Pestel Institute. The shortage of social housing is particularly severe.

Social housing: numbers falling despite high demand

According to the study, the number of social housing units in Berlin has fallen to around 92,000 as binding periods expire. As a result, only 5.4 per cent of tenant households now live in social housing. Yet nearly 60 per cent of households in Berlin are entitled to a housing eligibility certificate (Wohnberechtigungsschein, WBS) due to their low income.

According to the Senate Department for Urban Development, around 14,000 apartments were completed in Berlin last year, although exact figures are not yet available. “For 2026, the senator expects positive developments,” says Martin Pallgen, spokesperson for Urban Development Senator Christian Gaebler (SPD). One indicator is the forecasts of the state-owned housing companies, which completed around 4,700 apartments in 2025 but expect more than 7,000 in 2026.

Housing costs consume half of income

Nevertheless, the shortage of social housing is set to worsen. According to the housing market report by the state-owned Investment Bank Berlin (IBB), 46,000 apartments will lose their social housing status by 2034. By contrast, only 5,175 social housing units were newly approved in 2025.

“The hardship of the housing crisis affects younger and older people in particular. They are the losers in the housing market,” says study director Günther, describing it as a “social drama.” Students have to spend an average of 53 percent of their disposable income on housing. Across Berlin, households spend an average of 33 percent of their income on housing.

More articles from Berliner Morgenpost in English:

Among older people, the study shows that an increasing number of baby boomers will be affected as they retire in the coming years — many of them with small pensions. “Rising housing costs are becoming an existential threat for older people, because rents are rising while pensions are falling,” says Melanie Weber-Moritz, president of the German Tenants’ Association (DMB). An average pension of 1,100 euros in Germany is far from sufficient to cover the high rents in metropolitan areas such as Berlin.

According to the study, the consequences of this trend can also be seen in the so-called at-risk-of-poverty rate, which measures the share of the population whose net equivalised income is less than 60 percent of the median income. In Berlin, this affects 704,000 residents, or 383,000 households.

The alliance is calling on policymakers to take action. Although the federal government has allocated more funds for social housing construction during this decade, the states don’t get full access to the money immediately, as payments are spread over five years. However, for the construction of social housing, the bulk of the funding is needed immediately.

This article was originally written and published on the 15th of January in German. It was translated into English with the use of Artificial Intelligence.