Rent Check Germany 2026: Method, Sources and Calculations

Every figure on this site lives in one of four files: the Berlin rent index, the Hamburg rent index, the list of state ordinances, and a parameter file with the values from the Civil Code and the federal ordinances. We checked them on 12 October 2026. Pages and calculators read only from these files.

Berlin rent index 2026

A script reads the table from the Senate department's official PDF and checks that all 189 lines are present and every range is in order. The calculator picks the field by residential location, year of completion (1973 to 1990 split into East and West) and floor area. From the mean it applies the official guidance: ±20 per cent of the distance to the edge of the range for each group of features, with groups offsetting each other (the brochure's section on placing a flat in the range). For flats built up to 1949 without central heating or a bathroom it deducts 0.33 euros per square metre, as the brochure provides. The brochure's worked example (line 81, 7.75 euros) runs as a test. The guidance and the deduction are not part of the qualified index; the brochure says so and so do we.

Hamburg rent index 2025

The 88 filled fields come from the open dataset of the Department for Urban Development and Housing (German open-data licence, attribution (dl-de/by-2-0)), checked against the PDF table; where dataset and PDF differ (field C9) the PDF applies. Because Hamburg's index gives no figures for upward or downward adjustments, you choose the position in the range yourself: lower part, median or upper part.

Dortmund rent index 2025/2026

The base table with 9 construction periods and the 36 premiums and deductions come from the index the city published as a special issue of its official gazette on 20 December 2024. The calculator adds the size premium, the area premium and the chosen features to the mean and the range limits, as the index requires; modernisation premiums only for buildings before 1980. The city's worked example (1950, 63 m², 7.10 euros) runs as a test.

Cities that reserve their rights

München, Köln, Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Leipzig, Dresden, Hannover, Nürnberg, Bremen, Essen expressly reserve the rights to their indexes. We take no figure from them. The calculator links the city's official tool, you enter the reference rent, and we apply your municipality's rules to it.

State ordinances

For each state we read the current rent-brake ordinance (Section 556d(2) BGB) and the cap ordinance (Section 558(3) BGB) in the official gazette: title, reference, start, expiry and the municipality list. Together that is 729 rent-brake entries and 721 cap entries, each list counted against the official text. Where an ordinance covers only part of a municipality, the calculator says so. Several ordinances expire soon; we add their successors as soon as they are published.

Rules the calculators apply

Rent brake: reference rent plus 10 per cent, higher previous rent, Section 556f exemptions, refund under Section 556g(2) with the 30-month limit; months counted from the month the tenancy began.
Rent increase: the lower of reference rent and cap (20 or 15 per cent), 15-month waiting period, 12-month gap between increases, consent by the end of the second calendar month, effect from the third.
Modernisation: 8 per cent of costs a year, capped at 3 euros per m² over six years (2 euros below a rent of 7 euros), simplified procedure with a 30 per cent flat deduction, Section 559e with 10 per cent and at most 0.5 euros per m².
Service charges: twelve-month statement and objection deadlines, conversion per m² and month as in the Berlin overview.
CO2 costs: emissions per m² rounded to one decimal, step from the annex to the CO2KostAufG, landlord share halved or dropped under Section 9.
Notice: delivery by the third working day, Saturday counts (Federal Court, VIII ZR 206/04), national and state holidays that can fall in the first days of a month.
Index rent: Federal Statistical Office consumer price index 2020 = 100, monthly values up to 2026-08.

What the calculators cannot do

Determine the residential location of an address; the city's street directory does that.
Replace a court, which may set the reference rent differently in a given case, for instance from an expert opinion.
Set a rent reduction rate: no official table exists.
Cover furniture surcharges, social housing or student halls.

Sources

Review cycle: at least every 12 months. Please report errors to contact@mietcheck-rechner.de. Last check: 12 October 2026.