DSW: Student under massive pressure

Heavy rent burden, too little BAföG: students under massive pressure

• New figures from the Federal Statistical Office on the housing cost burden and income situation of students
• Federal Statistical Office: 53% of student income for rent - 25% for the population as a whole
• 62% of student households are considered overburdened
• DSW Chairman Matthias Anbuhl: “High rents threaten to crush students; a new form of social selection via rent is looming”
• Anbuhl: “We need the announced BAföG reform and vigorous implementation of the ‘Junges Wohnen’ program by the federal states”

Berlin, 27 August 2025. 53% of student income for rent, 62% of student households overburdened: The Deutsches Studierendenwerk (DSW) sees the new figures from the Federal Statistical Office on the housing cost burden and income situation of students as further evidence of how great the pressure to act remains on BAföG and the federal-state program “Junges Wohnen”.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, students with their own household spent 53% of their disposable household income on rent in 2024. This is significantly higher than the housing cost burden for the population as a whole, which averages 25%. 62% of student households are considered overburdened - in the population as a whole, the proportion of households overburdened by housing costs is 12%.

Matthias Anbuhl, Chairman of the DSW Executive Board, comments:
"The figures are alarming. The high rents threaten to crush many students. We are threatened by a new form of social selection based on rent. It is no longer talent and interest that decide which university I study at, but whether I can afford an apartment in this city at all. While the rent is an enormous burden for students, fewer and fewer of them are receiving BAföG. 

Two things are needed now: the serious implementation of the BAföG promises from the coalition agreement - and a strong boost from the federal states in the federal-state program ‘Young Housing’. 

A criminally neglected BAföG, a glaring lack of affordable housing: it is now time to make up for decades of neglect. 

The promised doubling of funding for the ‘Young Housing’ program - to support student residences for students and trainees - must be implemented in the coming year. 

And we urgently need a clear commitment to BAföG from the federal government. BAföG must become higher, simpler and more digital. The coalition must consistently implement the promises made in the coalition agreement. 

The coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD states: ‘We want to modernize BAföG in a major amendment’. The implementation of this major amendment is described in very concrete terms: The BAföG basic requirement is to be permanently raised in two steps to the level of basic income support, and the allowances are to be made more dynamic. The flat-rate housing allowance is to be increased from the current 380 to 440 euros per month. 

This BAföG reform is long overdue and must now be anchored in the federal budget in the medium term. The federal government must start legislative work to ensure that all promised increases actually come in this legislative period. 

Secondly, the federal-state program ‘Young Housing’, which was launched in 2023, needs a further boost. In the coalition agreement, the federal government promises to double the federal funding share to one billion euros per year - a strong signal. This doubling must take place in 2026 and the federal states, for their part, must implement the program vigorously.

The program has the potential to improve the dramatically poor housing situation for students in the medium and long term. But it is a medium and long haul, not a short sprint.

Local authorities and, above all, university cities are also called upon to act. Through a land policy geared towards the common good, they must ensure that the student unions receive affordable plots of land close to the universities so that they can build student residences and achieve affordable, socially acceptable rents in the long term.

A genuine BAföG reform and even more impetus for ‘young housing’: If these two projects are implemented, it will be good for students. Because more affordable housing can then be created and modernized for them, and because students with little money will hopefully have to spend a little less of their budget on rent thanks to higher BAföG."

Press release from the Federal Statistical Office from 27.8.2025: