The current state of tenant screening in the EU

The EU's rental market is under intense pressure. Rent prices have been rising for over a decade, while construction pipelines shrink, leaving tenants to compete for a dwindling pool of available properties. In the DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), a combination of clashing circumstances creates a challenging situation for both landlords and tenants.

Many property managers struggle to screen tenant backgrounds while complying with Europe's strict data protection laws. They aim to be fair to all applicants while preventing fraud and payment defaults. This article explores the need for improved tenant screening solutions in the EU, focusing on the current challenges and potential paths forward.

Europe Is a Renter Continent

While homeownership is common in most of Europe, the DACH countries stand out. According to Eurostat's 2025 Housing in Europe report, 68% of the EU population owns their homes. Germany inverts this statistic: approximately 53% of German residents are tenants, making it the only EU member state where renting is more common than owning. Austria follows at 46%, and Denmark at 39%.

Germany has over 43 million apartments, with around 23 million occupied by tenants. Austria counts around 1.8 million rented dwellings, and in Vienna alone, 75% of all homes are rented. Switzerland also faces a property scarcity problem, with a national vacancy rate of 1.08% in mid-2024, and Geneva at 0.46%.

Rental Fraud Is Rising Across the DACH Region

Germany's tight housing market has fueled rampant fraudulent activity. According to Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (or BKA), rental fraud increased by 25% between 2020 and 2023. Berlin police report thousands of fraud-related cases annually, with scams growing more sophisticated each year.

Fraud can happen to landlords or tenants. Landlords and property managers across Europe encounter prospective tenants with fabricated pay stubs, employment records, and even forged identity documents or manipulated credit reports. A 2024 survey by the National Multifamily Housing Council found that over 70% of housing providers had experienced a rise in fraudulent applications. The figures, drawn from global data, apply equally to European markets, where such practices are becoming increasingly common.

In Germany's most competitive urban markets – Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, and Hamburg – a single listing can attract more than ten applicants. This pressure incentivizes dishonest behavior among applicants. Fake Schufa reports (Germany's primary credit scoring system), altered bank statements, and fabricated employment letters are becoming commonplace. Many German landlords lack the technical expertise to detect and address these forgeries reliably.

The cost of a problematic tenancy extends beyond unpaid rent. German eviction proceedings are notoriously slow, forcing landlords to absorb losses from a problematic tenant for months. Legal fees and court costs accumulate rapidly, all while potentially incurring property damage. Industry estimates suggest a single bad tenancy can cost landlords tens of thousands of euros in combined losses. The housing shortage makes these losses much harder to absorb for the average landlord. Smaller landlords make up a significant portion of Germany's rental market, and a single default can have devastating financial consequences.

The importance of robust tenant screening is more important than ever, as nobody wants to encounter problematic tenants that bring nothing but financial troubles to the property owners.

The GDPR Paradox in Tenant Screening

One of the defining challenges of tenant screening in Europe is the complex regulatory environment surrounding personal data. The General Data Protection Regulation imposes strict requirements on how landlords collect, process, store, and share tenant information. Germany's Federal Data Protection Act, Austria's Data Protection Act, and Switzerland's Federal Act on Data Protection layer additional obligations on top of the EU-wide framework.

These regulations protect prospective tenants from discrimination, data misuse, and disproportionate intrusion into their private lives. Under Germany's anti-discrimination law, landlords are prohibited from making tenancy decisions based on protected characteristics, and tenants are not obliged to answer personal questions beyond what's necessary to assess suitability.

The core challenge: European landlords need enough information to make sound decisions, yet GDPR mandates data minimisation. Navigating these conflicting demands without specialised tools feels nearly impossible for many landlords. This paradox not only complicates the screening process but also heightens the risk of discrimination and fraud, leaving both landlords and tenants vulnerable in an already strained market.

A Fragmented Screening Landscape

Unlike the United States, where centralised credit reporting agencies and established screening platforms have created a standardised process, tenant screening in Europe remains deeply fragmented.

Germany's Schufa credit report is the closest equivalent to a centralised screening tool. However, Schufa scores have significant limitations: they have a specific definition of creditworthiness, but do not verify identity or confirm employment, nor do they assess rental history or detect forged documents. Crucially, they cannot verify any behavioural red flags, which is a much more delicate metric to assess. An applicant may have a clean Schufa report and still become a problematic tenant.

In practice, the screening process across much of the EU remains remarkably manual and informal. Landlords often have to review paper documents and even rely on gut instinct. This process is time-consuming, inconsistent, and highly susceptible to fraud. For landlords managing multiple properties or handling high application volumes, this ad hoc approach simply doesn't scale.

The Path Forward: Privacy-First, Digital-First Screening

The structural problems outlined above are not going to resolve themselves. As Europe's housing shortage deepens and rental markets grow more competitive, the need for robust, compliant, and efficient tenant screening will only intensify.

A modern European screening solution must be built from the ground up for GDPR and local data protection compliance, not as an afterthought. It must go beyond a simple credit check, which can include identity verification, income and employment confirmation, risk analysis, and the ability to detect forged or manipulated documents. Third, it must provide tangible results for its users. It should make the days of landlords manually verifying paper documents and calling employers by phone over.

Today, platforms like Syncrent are addressing this gap in the market. Syncrent combines integrated application forms and channels for background screening, risk analysis, and electronic contract generation within a single GDPR-compliant platform. It gives landlords and property managers the confidence to make informed decisions without cutting corners on privacy or compliance.

These kinds of platforms are also beneficial to tenants. A transparent screening process is fairer to tenants than informal gut checks and reduces the potential for discrimination. When tenants know what is being checked and why, it creates mutual trust between both sides of the equation.

The Broader Picture

The state of tenant screening in the EU in 2026 reflects the broader housing crisis. Record-low vacancy rates, slowing construction, rising rents, and growing tenant vulnerability have created a high-stakes environment where nobody knows for certain how impactful a tenant decision can be. The consequences of getting screening wrong are severe for everyone involved.

As the market matures, the landlords and tenants who demand better are asking the same question: how can we create an environment where screening is a necessary, transparent process that benefits us all?