I Moved from Germany to the UK a little over a year ago.
The UK (at least London) is soooooooo much worse as far as renting goes. I rented a few places in Germany in a couple different cities and every place had some annoyances, but I just wasn’t prepared for what a free-for-all shitshow it is in the UK.
Literally hundreds of people coming to viewings for a single place. Landlords can basically raise rents whenever they feel like it and force you out. The places are generally absolutely terrible quality with very little incentive to improve things. I had places trying to force 3+ year contracts with no break clause. I’ve never experienced so many colleagues constantly having issues with “the landlord raising rents by 30% and when we refused or tried to negotiate we got forced out”. Then you have to scramble to find a place in a month.
They price everything based on number of bedrooms rather than size, so landlords are incentivized to subdivide flats into multiple units and minimise space. A 4-bed flat-share with no living room? Fairly standard, even for working professionals.
Plus, after you pay the extortionate rents the TENANT pays the taxes (council tax).
I encountered issues in Germany with renting (particularly when I first moved there) but the German situation would be a HUGE improvement for most of the UK
I Moved from Germany to the UK a little over a year ago.
The UK (at least London) is soooooooo much worse as far as renting goes. I rented a few places in Germany in a couple different cities and every place had some annoyances, but I just wasn’t prepared for what a free-for-all shitshow it is in the UK.
Literally hundreds of people coming to viewings for a single place. Landlords can basically raise rents whenever they feel like it and force you out. The places are generally absolutely terrible quality with very little incentive to improve things. I had places trying to force 3+ year contracts with no break clause. I’ve never experienced so many colleagues constantly having issues with “the landlord raising rents by 30% and when we refused or tried to negotiate we got forced out”. Then you have to scramble to find a place in a month.
They price everything based on number of bedrooms rather than size, so landlords are incentivized to subdivide flats into multiple units and minimise space. A 4-bed flat-share with no living room? Fairly standard, even for working professionals.
Plus, after you pay the extortionate rents the TENANT pays the taxes (council tax).
I encountered issues in Germany with renting (particularly when I first moved there) but the German situation would be a HUGE improvement for most of the UK