Worth Living
Living between town and country

Katharina Fitz has been searching for empty houses in Liverpool and Manchester. Her photos highlight a problem that goes far beyond the former industrial cities.

Working on a train in India, video conferencing on Skype from a beach in Thailand, enjoying an after-work apéritif in a new city every week – digital nomads make the most of the new technologies to see the world, earning their daily bread as they go.

A different way to live: unconventional and whimsical ideas from Germany.

The building sector accounts for roughly one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. New energy-efficient and environmentally sound construction and renovation methods are finally catching on in France.

Affordable housing has become scarce in many German cities, where skyrocketing rents are displacing low-income residents to the outskirts. The problem is by no means new though: In the 1970s and 1980s, people in Germany waged fierce battles against investors, building by contested building.

Germans prefer to rent rather than buy a flat. Our video explains why.

Is the online Airbnb flat sharing platform making Berlin’s housing shortage worse? Three students analysed the data to help answer this question. And reached some surprising conclusions.

The German rent control law known as the “Mietpreisbremse” or literally the “rent brake” was designed to slow rising housing costs, but has not really solved the problem. In an interview, economic researcher Claus Michelsen talks about some other approaches that might rein in soaring rents.