The limited body of research on micro-housing, which refers to small-scale housing units for single-person households, often associates this with housing affordability. In this study, we analyze the affordability of micro housing based on housing advertisements using Berlin as a case study area. Therefore, we focus on different target groups of micro-housing named by industry-driven research.

On the one hand, we argue that the relevance of some of these groups for housing affordability from an urban development planning perspective is questionable. On the other hand, the results indicate that micro units are hardly affordable for target groups such as students, who are often affected by housing affordability problems. Our study illustrates that for Berlin there is a substantial mismatch between the potential contribution postulated in the literature and the actual contribution of micro-units to affordable housing.