Yes, there is. § 558 (1) BGB (Civil Code), generally leads to an automatic increase every 2 years. This increase may be higher than the inflation rate. These increases lead to average rent of the area being raised, which in itsself leads to further increases. For pensioners this poses problems since these increases alone eats up the increased pension of the last 2 years. For social support, where the amount of rent is part of the calculation, there is a fix sum of rent that will be taken into consideration. This fix sum is **not** raised in the same automatic mannor as the rent itself. **Bezahlbarer Wohnraum** (Affordable living space) is considered a major social problem where the average rent is nearing the 50% of available income (instead of around 30), for which § 558 (1) BGB is partially a cause of. --- **Sources**: - [Section 558 Increase in rent up to the reference rent customary in the locality][0] [0]:https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_bgb/englisch_bgb.html#p2120