In Leipzig, one in five people spend around 42 percent of their income on rent. On average, rent accounts for 29 percent of income, according to the city's municipal survey "Living in Leipzig 2025". According to the survey, the fifth of Leipzig residents with the highest incomes pay around 19 percent for rent. At 12 percent of households, comparatively few people in the trade fair city live in owner-occupied apartments or in their own home, it continues.
In Leipzig and Dresden, the rental market is considered to be tight. In December last year, the Saxon state government extended the rent freeze for the two major cities until mid-2027. It stipulates that the rent at the start of a tenancy may not exceed the local comparative rent by more than ten percent. At the same time, the creation of additional living space is to be promoted.
According to a study presented in January by the Pestel Institute on behalf of the "Social Housing" alliance, there will be a shortage of tens of thousands of social housing units in Saxony in the coming years. The authors of the study calculated a need for around 120,000 social housing units over the next nine years in order to achieve the minimum standard of 8.5 percent of all tenant households defined by the authors.
