📊 Berlin Mietspiegel

Berlin rent data — block by block. Three independent data sources layered on a single interactive map: market rents (Immoscout24), official census rents (Zensus 2022), and the legally binding Berlin Mietspiegel.

← Overview · 🗺️ Map · 🔬 Experiments · GitHub Repository

1. Project Overview

What is the Berlin Mietspiegel?

A Mietspiegel (rent index) is an official document published by the Berlin Senate that establishes the legally admissible rent levels for residential properties. It categorizes rent by:

• Wohnlage — location quality (einfach/simple, mittel/medium, gut/good)
• Baujahr — construction year period (from pre-1918 to post-2011)
• Wohnfläche — apartment size in m²

The Berlin Mietspiegel is a "qualifizierter Mietspiegel" — the highest legal grade, admissible in court without further evidence. It directly affects rent control (Mietpreisbremse), tenant disputes, and housing policy.

Why Three Data Sources?

No single source tells the full story of Berlin rents. By combining three independent datasets, we can reveal the gap between what the law says and what the market actually charges:

2. Data Sources

Berlin Mietspiegel 2024

Immoscout24 Market Data (RWI-GEO-REDX PUF v16)

The RWI-GEO-REDX is a hedonic price index derived from Immoscout24 rental listings. Unlike the Mietspiegel (a regulatory instrument), this reflects actual market asking prices for new listings.

Zensus 2022 (Official Census Rent)

The census rent represents what current tenants actually pay — including long-term tenants with older, cheaper contracts. This is why the census average (€7.97/m²) is significantly lower than the market average (€10.79/m²): new listings cost dramatically more than existing contracts.

Berlin District (Bezirk) Data

3. What You See on the Map

Heatmap

The heatmap shows either Immoscout24 market rents or Zensus 2022 census rents (toggleable). Colors are z-score normalized relative to the Berlin average, not national:

• ● Green — below Berlin average (cheaper areas)
• ● Yellow — at Berlin average
• ● Red — above Berlin average (expensive areas)

District Labels

Berlin's 12 Bezirke are shown as text labels with their estimated average rent per m². The estimates are derived from the Berlin Senate's Wohnlage classification (400,505 address-level points) cross-referenced with the official Mietspiegel rent tables.

Click Anywhere

Clicking the map performs nearest-neighbor lookups across all three data layers:

• Market rent — nearest Immoscout24 grid cell with €/m², year, and PLZ
• Census rent — nearest Zensus 2022 cell showing what residents actually pay
• Official Mietspiegel — Berlin's legal reference rent, with the gap to market

The tooltip explains: "New listings cost X% more than what current tenants pay" — plain language, no z-score jargon.

4. Key Findings

Market vs Census Gap

Berlin Rent History (2013–2023)

Berlin rents doubled in 10 years. The 2021→2023 period alone saw +18.4% growth — the steepest increase in a single edition cycle. This coincides with the Mietendeckel (rent freeze) being struck down by Germany's Constitutional Court in April 2021.

5. Tech Stack

7. Future Scope

• 🚗 Traffic density overlay — Berlin's open data portal has traffic detection data from 240+ infrared sensors (Verkehrsdetektion Berlin, dl-de-by-2.0). Could be aggregated into a heatmap circleMarker layer showing vehicle counts and congestion by neighborhood. Toggleable alongside rent data to explore correlations between rent prices and traffic density. TomTom or HERE APIs are paid alternatives offering real-time flow data.
• 🏫 Infrastructure proximity — overlay schools, public transport stops, parks, and grocery stores. Correlate with rent premiums.
• 📈 Rent trend projection — extrapolate historical Mietspiegel growth rates into future projections per district.

8. License & Attribution

Built by Ravi DVR. Dashboard live at ravidvr.github.io/mietspiegel-digitization. Last updated: July 2026.