Berlin caps the rents - does it work?

120 potential apartments in a city with more than 3.6 million inhabitants.

You should realize that this is no more than a drop in the bucket

Honestly, no. Those are only the ones up to 400 Euros for singles. If the need were that great, there should be zero, right? Or do you think all the apartments will be rented out the day after tomorrow? I don't believe that. They are not in demand because they are too ugly or in a bad location. At 800 Euros from 70m², there are 279 apartments. You can probably move in anywhere tomorrow.

kahoe, the office only pays up to 404 euros cold, possibly 444 euros. And almost all of these apartments are only available with a certificate of eligibility. And if you were to have an assumed 100,000 apartments of this size and price range in Berlin, and they were each only listed for 4 days during a tenant change every 10 years, that would already be 120 ads. And that is an optimistic calculation! What would a housing shortage look like for you then? Only two days of listing? Or only after 12 hours?

And almost all of these apartments are only available with a Bezugsschein.

I don't understand right now. You mean the apartments advertised here on immo can only be obtained with a Bezugsschein? (Sorry if I'm not familiar with that - what is a Bezugsschein?)

What would housing shortage look like to you then? Only two days listing? Or only after 12 hours?

If apartments are really scarce, there is no listing - it's that simple. I grew up in the GDR and know what "scarce," "under the counter," and "word of mouth propaganda" mean. I'm not saying apartments aren't scarce, I'm saying the apartments that people want are scarce. But those are not the ones for which you (presumably) receive a Bezugsschein. And that's where the dilemma lies. You can't build or maintain those for 8 euros.

Certificate of Eligibility for Housing

With this, you are allowed to move into a price-controlled apartment, colloquially also known as a "social apartment" (if one should be available). Almost all of your results are thus price-controlled apartments, publicly subsidized and accessible only to a closed group of people. Presumably, these must be advertised by the public housing companies as a matter of course so that no "collusion accusations" can be made. Without this, the supply in this segment would really look slim!

This doesn’t really help the small craftsman or the saleswoman with a net income of 1400....

Almost all your hits are therefore rent-controlled apartments,

Why is that? Nowhere does it say that they need a certificate of eligibility. I don't read anything there.

Read the headlines, it often says "Seniors (from 58)", "Student dormitory" ....and also "WBS"=Wohnberechtigungsschein. How many of the 130 results (immoscout24, search location "Berlin", up to 404 euros cold) are currently actually available at all?