Rents could come down

Tenants may be able to get a cut in rents after the Federal Housing Office lowered the benchmark mortgage rate for rental contracts to 1.25%, its lowest level since the system was introduced in 2008.

The cut follows a drop in the banks’ weighted average mortgage rates.

For tenants, this means they can now demand rent reductions of nearly 3% 

Conversely, property owners may increase rents by 3% when the reference rate rises by a quarter point. 

The reference rate is reviewed every three months and only changes in steps of 0.25 percentage points. 

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