zlacker

>>halduj+(OP)
The dynamic is a little different than in most other cities. What's really happening here is that cheap rent is a kind of entitlement in Berlin: rent controls extend across tenants so getting an apartment is really about persuading a landlord to take you rather than bidding at an appropriate price point. AirBnB gets around this by allowing rentals at arbitrary price points. This is true whether it's an owner or a renter doing the leasing, which is very different from other markets in which it's mostly a concern of renters abusing their leases.

> "The Berlin Senate’s ruling nonetheless reflects a general feeling across a city in which homes are getting harder to find: Berliners have had enough and they want their city back."

Translation: There is no pricing mechanism on rents in the city and it is becoming increasingly impossible to find an apartment.

While it's certainly true that AirBnB essentially allows landlords to flout the law, it's worth noting that the adverse effects of price ceilings on supply are the root cause of Berlin's problems and this will not solve the underlying problem of rents being far from equilibrium.

>>jvm+ih
Capitalism always exists, whether you want to admit it or not. You can pretend there are no such things as prices by adding more and more epicycles to your model, or just admit they exist and then (for example) have a welfare state to compensate the non-winners.

>>daniel+1k
The easiest solution is always capitalism, I agree, I'm fairly certain however it's harder to find somewhere to rent in London and paying more in Berlin still reaps results (having lived there as an IT contractor for 4 months from London I should know). I think these things can be solved in Berlin much more easily than most capital cities (i.e. there is substantial space to build new homes that simply doesn't exist in London or New York say).

Simply saying "be more capitalist" might work, but I'd say build more quality homes on all the scratchy pieces of land that exist round Berlin is an equally good option above firing people into the weird world of London property.

Finally the AirBnB/rentals thing is a result I'd guess of the massive number of people who hate having tourists traipsing through their buildings. My experience at least centrally was of large shared blocks of high quality flats and a lot of suspicion around strangers being granted entry to said gated communities.

>>andy_p+il
Being more capitalist is how you create the incentives that result in more quality homes being built on the scratchy pieces of land that exist around Berlin.