One major contributing factor to the global credit crisis was undoubtedly the bursting of the housing bubble in countries such as the United States and Great Britain.
In Germany that bubble never happened -house prices have been static for the last ten years.
Al Jazeera's Nadim Baba has been finding out why.
One factor in Germany's housing market is rent control, so tenants are protected from outsized rent increases and have greater security in their rented homes. People don't feel that they have to secure their right to stay in a community by purchasing a house.