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There’s an area in Germany where the price of rent hasn’t changed for 500 years
Published 15:20 3 Jun 2024 BST
Updated 15:20 3 Jun 2024 BST
Homenews
Rental prices seem to never stop going up, and even those who own their houses these days are struggling to keep up with mortgage rates.
With this in mind, a place where the price of rent hasn't changed for 500 years sounds like a fever dream, right?
Well, it turns out that in Germany such a place actually exists!
Understandably, the places are limited, and there are some pretty specific entry requirements that tenants have to meet in order to take advantage of the cheap price of rent.
The place in question is located Augsburg in southern Germany, but the area with the protected rents is its own walled section of the city.
Called the Fuggerei, it is regarded as the world's oldest public housing complex that is still being used.
The complex was founded in 1516, and in the 500 years it has been standing, the rent hasn't changed.
The houses in the enclave look like something out of a fairytale, which, to be frank, they basically are when you learn how cheap it costs to live there.
To live in Fuggerei residents have to pay under a euro, with their rent for the entire year clocking in at just 88 cents, which equates to 77p.
The conditions you have to meet in order to be able to live there are where things become a bit more complicated.
Residents have to be Catholic and be prepared to say three prayers every day for the owners of the complex.
Additionally, renters have to have lived in Ausburg for two years, and be suffering from poverty but without any debt.
For those who do meet the requirements, they get to rent a home that is anywhere between 45 and 65 square metres, with either a shed or an attic depending on whether they are on the ground or first floor.
Plus, each house even has its own unique doorbell so that residents could tell which was theirs in the middle of the night before the invention of streetlights!
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