Source: Germany's Largest Landlord To Restrict Heating At Night to 17C (62F) German households could see ‘four-digit’ rise in energy costs this winter, DW: Living Without A Home?: What if You Can't Afford One?
Tenants of Germany's largest landlord, Vonovia, will be forced to keep their thermostat at 17 C (62 degrees F) between the hours of 11 pm and 6 am in the fall and winter and will not have access to hot water for several hours a day. This is only the first step towards making tenants uncomfortable in their own homes because Germany's federal network agency is pushing to lower the legal minimum temperature even lower. To add insult to injury, they will also be forced to pay several times more for this energy cutback perhaps as much as a family's monthly salary.
Within the space of one year, the cost of a megawatt hour of gas has risen from 20 euros to more than 140 euros. Habeck said he was concerned about a “domino effect” on the energy market, where companies are currently struggling with these super high gas prices and pre-existing contracts that nowhere near cover the costs. “They make a loss every day,” he said.
Homelessness in Germany has increased 150% since 2014 and it's estimated that there are up to 1 million homeless Germans (in a country of 84 million). With these kind of utility rate hikes (combined with rack rents) more renters will be thrown into the ranks of the homeless, the chasm between renters and owners will grow wider and German cities will start resembling those in their former colonies.