Why I built ImmoDash
I grew up in Mumbai, one of the most crowded cities in the world. Moving to Germany taught me that the same question follows people on small incomes everywhere: how much of what I earn will the roof take?
Background: rent per 100 m square in Berlin, Zensus 2022. Stronger blue is dearer.
ScrollImmoDash in 50 seconds
One question, answered with open data: is the rent you are offered fair? The short film shows what the site does, from the trend in 37 cities to the 12-month outlook.
Growing up in Mumbai
Mumbai has close to 20 million inhabitants[17]. In the 2011 census, 41.8% of the people in Greater Mumbai, about 5.2 million, lived in slums[18].
Growing up there, I saw how housing shapes the lives of people on small incomes: where they can live, and how little is left at the end of the month once the roof is paid for. Housing is not one expense among many. For a low-income household it is the expense that decides the others.
Then Germany
In November 2024 I moved to Bielefeld to study for an M.Sc. in Data Science, and went through the German flat search myself as a student.
Germany is a far richer country, yet the pattern is familiar. On average, households spend 24.1% of their disposable income on housing. For people at risk of poverty it is 43.7%[19]. More than a third of them, 35.0%, spend over 40% of their income on housing, against 11.2% of the whole population[20].
In the cities it is sharper still. A study of Germany's 77 big cities found that almost 13% of tenant households have less than the subsistence minimum left after paying rent[21]. And a rent above 30% of net income is generally seen as problematic, because too little remains for everything else[1].
Why data, and why open data
- 01The story
Is this rent normal?
Compare a new lease with what people already pay and with the trend in 37 cities.
- 02Affordability
Can I afford it?
Check a flat against the 30% rule, or find every district where a budget works.
- 03Supply & demand
Where is it hardest?
See where few flats stand empty while the population grows, in all 400 districts.
- 04How it works
Can I trust it?
Every number comes from official or academic data, and every explanation links to a published source.
About me
I'm Zoeb Ali Khan, currently pursuing an M.Sc. in Data Science at Universität Bielefeld. I built ImmoDash end to end: the data pipeline, the models, the API and this website. It is an independent project and not affiliated with any of the data providers.