[Malarkey73]

ditto the UK. Took virtually no refugees but rents still increasing ... hmmm something wrong with this theory?

Seriously though in the UK we have had immigration over the last 20 years and that must have led to higher demand and prices. Best estimates are about 20% in 20 years in England.

https://fullfact.org/immigration/have-house-prices-risen-bec...

BUT

English house prices have risen by 320% on average over this period.

Other factors are - getting married later, more single people, more divorced couples, and financialisation of housing.

Probably a similar story in Berlin.

[ccozan]

Munich is very simptomatic of this "singles" issues. More than half of the people there are singles, thus the housing need is quite high.

However, since the cheap money from the banks, more people are orienting to buy than rent, which is quite different from the past.