The location on Kessenich's Aloys-Schulte-Strasse is designated by the rent index as “good." Accordingly, the rents may also be higher there. Between seven and nine euros per square meter would be normal (without utilities). But an apartment owned by a doctor from Nuremberg has a considerably higher rent, as discovered by a GA reader. For the barely 48 square meter studio apartment, rent is 610 euros without utilities - plus 50 euros rent for a small kitchen and 120 euros additional expenses. The 48 square meters calculated include a bathroom and half of the balcony. "The actual living space is only 39 square meters," she says.

Another woman from Bonn also had a bad experience searching for an apartment. She is currently paying 670 euros for her 52-square-meter apartment in Essen, including electricity and internet. In Bonn, she would get a 20-square-meter room in a shared apartment for the same amount. The money one has to pay out in advance is also problematic. A security deposit can easily cost 2,000 euros, and often the renter is required to purchase the used furniture already in the apartment.

Even if she were to throw out the wardrobe cabinet or bed afterwards, the 32-year-old would have been willing to pay the extra money charged - because there are so few apartments available for rent. "The pain threshold is 2,000 euros." What she has also noticed: often the extra service charges mentioned in the ads do not include heating.

According to Felix von Grünberg, Chairman of the Board of the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg/Euskirchen Tenants' Association, such offers are not uncommon - and the official rent index that has been in place in Bonn since 2020 has done nothing to change that. But it is true that as a tenant you have a tool at hand to calculate a comparative rent and to confront a landlord that tries to charge too much.

In the case of new rental contracts, by law a renter can demand the landlord pay back the difference if the renter finds out they are paying too much, as Grünberg explains. More than ten percent deviation from the rental index is not allowed, he says. "Tenants are unfortunately too reluctant, because they are usually happy to have snatched up an apartment at all." But if this spiral is not broken, it continues, he says. "The high rent that the tenant pays now later goes into the rent index as the standard." The same phenomenon occurs with a rent increase, he said. "If the landlord demands about 80 euros more, tenants consider risking expert, lawyer and court costs, which can quickly exceed 1,200 euros, in a dispute."

Grünberg would only advise taking furniture if one doesn't have to pay for it. “It's not worth anything if it’s used. That includes furniture in rooms or a kitchen sink." Since this usually happens when previous tenants want to get out of a lease sooner and propose a next tenant, he advises informing the landlord. "Because he's more likely to have an interest in asking for a higher rent than in furniture being bought out." As well, some landlords try to count fifty percent of balconies or terraces as living space. "But that only works if it is equipped like an apartment. The usual (calculation) is a quarter of that area." Another annoyance, he says, is modernization, which is readily used to raise rents.

Grünberg nevertheless sees the rent index as important and correct. The alternative would be for the landlord to pick out comparable properties and see what is being paid in that category. Bonn's mayor Katja Dörner says this about the rent index valid from July 2022 to 2024: "It applies to non-price-linked rental apartments in the Bonn city area, was drawn up in 2020 in accordance with legal requirements and has now been updated by means of the cost-of-living index.” However, this poses a problem: If the cost of living rises due to inflation and price increases, as is the case now, rents grow accordingly.

For Bonn, the price index has risen from 105.7 in 2020 to 111.5 currently, an increase of 5.5 percent. In addition to the apartment itself, location also plays an important role in the calculation. In the city, Südstadt and Ippendorf, it is designated "very good", in Kessenich, Poppelsdorf, Beuel, Endenich and large parts of Bad Godesberg it is "good". Hardtberg and Tannenbusch are considered "medium," Hardthöhe, Nordstadt, Weststadt, Beuel-Ost and the south of Godesberg “basic”.

One issue currently stuck at the federal level: the Bundesrat wants higher fines for landlords who charge unreasonably high rents - an increase from a 50,000 to a 100,000 euro fine. It should also become easier for tenants to prove price gouging.

According to a draft bill, a rent would already be considered excessive if it exceeded the local comparative rent by 20 percent and the supply of affordable housing was low. Under current law, a tenant must first prove that he or she has searched in vain for an apartment and that the landlord is exploiting this situation with overpriced rents - which Grünberg says is futile in practice. The federal government coalition would have to sign on for the current law to change but this is being met with resistance. Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) expressed concerns about it and has proposed rejecting the initiative.