It is no surprise when we say that prices have risen significantly in recent years. That's in everything, food, materials, energy and rent. In 2017 you paid the amount of €0.90 for a liter of milk, now you pay €1.19. Now 29 cents doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a third more than what you paid eight years ago. It's also slightly more than inflation. That from 2017 to now is 29%. Had the milk price followed inflation, you wouldn't be paying €1.19 now, but €1.16.
Rent has risen less than inflation
Rents for workspaces, including ours, also follow inflation. In real estate jargon, this is called "indexation," and it takes place every year. At SKAR, it happens every year on July 1. The amount you pay for a studio now is higher than what you paid in 2017, simply because the money has become worth less. Those who had an average studio on Borger Street back then, to give an example, paid € 124.30 in bare rent per month. Now that same person pays € 155.44. In euros, that difference is quite an amount: €31.
Does that match inflation? No, it's less. Actually, that tenant should have paid not €31 but €36 a month more, i.e. €160.47. We passed on less inflation than we should have: instead of 29% it was 25%. Especially when inflation was alarmingly high, in 2022, we decided not to pass on all the inflation to sitting tenants. We wrote about that in our newsletter at the time. Also that this meant we could spend less on the properties; after all, SKAR does not make a profit.
Did that apply to everyone? It did for those who rented from SKAR at the time. But those who rented after 2022 do pay a bit more, simply because we couldn't afford it. Whereas the SKAR norm for those who rented a studio in 2016 (when the SKAR norm came into being) was €50 per square meter per year, now it is €64.30. If we had followed inflation fully, the SKARnorm would have been € 65.40. So if we calculate in reverse, and deduct the full inflation from the current SKARnorm, you would pay less now than you did then.
But the cost of energy has risen much faster
It feels different, that much is clear. Not only because the amount is different, but because other costs have grown even faster. You don't just pay rent for your studio. There are also the service fees. We've written about this before, namely that on average they grow three times faster than inflation. And that's entirely due to the cost of energy. Since 2017, those costs have more than doubled. In 2017, for example, tenants in the same Borger Street paid an average of €59 per month in service costs, in 2024 it was €132. Had service costs grown only with inflation, it would have been € 76. So the difference, € 56 per month, went to the energy company. And that difference will only increase, if we leave everything as it is.
There's not much we can do about this except make it more sustainable. And that's what we're pushing very hard right now.