It was a Wednesday, just before 3pm on one of the busiest streets in Munich, and the cluster of 30-odd 30-somethings standing before Landsbergerstrasse 47 was growing steadily.

Each new arrival was examined expectantly until finally, at 3:10pm, the group began edging toward the building entrance. The real-estate agent had arrived. The crowd tromped up the stairs on her heels to the empty, two-room apartment above.
By 4 pm, more than 60 people had passed through the apartment, and, despite its location across from the train yards of Munich’s main station, most of them had filled out an application. Then they headed, almost as a group, to the next apartment visit.

Scenes such as this one have become a regular occurrence in Munich, where an influx of high-tech companies and an attractive standard of living have made it one of the most popular cities for young people in Germany.

Last year alone, Munich’s population rose by 38,000 according to the Statistische Landesamt, with most of the newcomers coming from within Germany. Despite such figures, the number of new apartments built each year has not risen in the last half decade — a situation that show no signs of improving. “It sucks!” says Caroline Moser, newly back in Munich after spending a year in New York.

“Seriously. When you call or when you visit, there are just millions of people there. You could hire a bus and just tour the people around because everyone just goes from apartment visit to apartment visit. And it’s always the same people. It seems like nobody ever finds an apartment.”

The shortage has forced new arrivals in Munich to answer every advertisement in the newspaper, including those far outside the city centre, or in areas of Munich bordering the busy ring road or the autobahn. Renters also have to pay more than they can afford.

Apartment rents have risen almost 15 percent in the past 12 months alone and shows no sign of improving. At DM 19 per square metre per month for new apartments, they are now the highest in Germany and almost 75 percent more than the DM 11 per square metre that a comparable apartment would cost in Berlin, according to Ring Deutsche Makler (RDM), a confederation of Munich real-estate companies.

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