Jakarta – German is experiencing a housing crisis. This has an impact on foreign students who are studying in that country, they have difficulty renting boarding houses.
Quoted from Deutsche Welle (DW), Wednesday (27/12/2023), the scarcity of housing in Germany has forced the Student Association in Göttingen to rent a hotel to accommodate new students for several weeks.
Meanwhile, in Munich the rental price for an apartment reaches 720 Euros or around Rp. 12 million (exchange rate Rp. 17,000). Because it’s quite expensive, one camp offers discounts for students who can’t get an apartment.
Generally, apartment rental prices in Germany range from 6.5-7.5 Euros per square meter (m2) or around Rp. 110-127,513. However, now at this price you can no longer find it on the outskirts of Berlin. In fact, in Munich the apartment rental price is 19 Euros per m2 (Rp. 323,000), in Stuttgart it is 18 Euros per m2 (Rp. 306,000), in Dusseldorf and Cologne it is 12-13 Euros per m2 (Rp. 204-221,000), and in Berlin it is 11 Euros per m2 (Rp. 187,000).
From the results of research by the Eduard Pestel Research Institute earlier this year, Germany lacks around 700,000 apartments, especially affordable housing. The minimal availability of rooms or houses makes monthly rental prices higher.
Student General Committee (AStA), Thomas Schmidt, confirmed that students were having difficulty finding rooms to rent.
“Some are able to rent a room with financial guarantees from their parents. But the situation is very difficult for foreign students because they often cannot submit such guarantees,” said Schmidt, quoted by DW.
On the other hand, Deputy Secretary General of the German Students Association DSW Stefanus Grob said the number of students in Germany had increased by 2.9 million in the last 12-15 years. According to him, the government’s failure to invest in building adequate infrastructure makes it difficult for Germany to accommodate more students.
“We worry that we are moving towards a two-class society, with the rich who can afford education anywhere, and those who can’t, and this could be a disaster because money determines where students can study, not how smart they are, ” he said.
To overcome this, this year the German government provided a subsidy of 500 million Euros (Rp. 8.5 trillion) for students and young people to get housing to rent. According to the German Housing Ministry, these subsidies will be budgeted again in 2024 and 2025.
This was welcomed by DSW. However, DSW is concerned that this could help thousands of students who are at risk of becoming homeless this winter semester.
“Students compete for accommodation with social groups such as the elderly, young families and low-income families, refugees, etc., what we are discussing is not just a problem for the higher education system, but a social problem,” said Grob.
With this subsidy, according to the Berlin Student Association, as many as 200,000 students in Germany applied to get rooms in dormitories. On average, each student has to wait three semesters before being able to get a subsidized room in a dormitory.
“Many students have moved to the suburbs, or even out of state and are willing to commute every day,” said Jana Judisch of the association in Berlin.
Watch the video “The culprit in a country as big as the US is the housing crisis”
(Apr/Apr)
2023-12-27 03:33:23
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