Munich’s city council social committee on Thursday approved the “Mietenmonitor”, a digital tool that will automatically compare rental listings on online portals with the city’s rent index (Mietspiegel). Landlords who ask well above the going rate will get a letter from the city.
The idea is simple. The software reads publicly available listings, checks the asking rent against the local comparative rent for location and features, and flags anomalies to the Social Department. Where a rent significantly exceeds the benchmark, the landlord is informed of the legal rules and asked to review the offer. The city has not said what counts as “significant”. The project runs until the end of 2028 and will then be evaluated.
Mayor Dominik Krause (Greens) said, according to the city’s Rathaus Umschau bulletin, that rents in Munich are “at record levels”. The city assumes many landlords simply adopt the rent suggested by listing portals, which is often too high. The Greens–Rosa Liste group, which had demanded the tool in the previous term, calls it an early-warning system that acts “before leases are signed”. Group chair Clara Nitsche cites Munich researchers who found only 2.4 per cent of respondents had used the rent brake: “Who sues their own landlord?”
What the monitor can and cannot do
It triggers no fine, and tenants gain no new legal claim. It is a nudge, not a ban. The reason lies in the law: under section 5 of the Economic Offences Act, excessive rent can be punished as an administrative offence if it is roughly 20 per cent above the comparative rent and the landlord exploits a shortage of housing. The city itself says that is very hard to prove, even in Munich, and it cannot interfere in privately agreed leases. It has asked Berlin for a change in federal law for years without success.
Our assessment, with the caution a pilot deserves: the effect depends on whether landlords respond to a letter that threatens no sanction. It may work for ads that merely copied a portal’s suggestion; it is less likely to work against deliberately inflated furnishing surcharges.
What flat-hunters can do now
There is no need to wait. The 2025 Mietspiegel puts the average net cold rent at €15.38 per square metre, 5.5 per cent above the €14.58 of 2023. At 2025.mietspiegel-muenchen.de you can calculate the comparative rent for privately financed flats – ideally before you sign.
The city’s tenant advice service (Franziskanerstraße 8, room 238) checks rent increases, service-charge statements and excessive rents free of charge, for up to 30 minutes per appointment. An interpreter can be arranged for people with limited German. Book on 089 233-40200 (Mon–Fri 8.30–12.00, Mon–Wed 13.30–15.00) or email mietberatung.soz@muenchen.de. Conditions: the flat is in Munich, and neither tenant nor landlord is represented by a lawyer or an association. The service does not draft legal letters. By its own account it handles about 25,000 consultations a year.
Sources: Rathaus Umschau München, City of Munich – tenant advice, City of Munich – Mietspiegel, t-online
