High-rise settlement Gropiusstadt in Berlin-Neukölln
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Berlin (German news agency) – Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) has spoken out against relaxing rental price rules, which could result in a different distribution of living space in regions that are in high demand. “I don’t think anything of the proposal at all,” Geywitz told the “Welt am Sonntag”.
“We cannot and do not want to force people to move just because they live in a large apartment.” A few days ago, a research team from the IREBS real estate institute at the University of Regensburg proposed abolishing caps and rent controls. As a result, according to the idea, landlords would raise the rents in apartments that are currently still cheap to the market level. Tenants in particular with long-term contracts and relatively large living areas would then be forced to move out, and new tenants who actually need the large areas could move in. “We’re playing young and old, or existing tenants and new tenants, against each other,” said the building minister. “This is a completely wrong approach.” Instead, Geywitz advocates more new construction: “We urgently need more affordable housing. To this end, we are providing the federal states with a record sum of 14.5 billion euros for social housing construction by 2026.” In addition, her ministry is working “on the simplification and acceleration of planning and approval procedures”. When it comes to tenancy law, she supports the further tightening agreed in the traffic light coalition agreement, “for example, the extension of the rental price brake and the lowering of the cap in tense housing markets,” said Geywitz. “I look forward to Minister Buschmann’s proposal, which I hope will reach us soon.” Index rents are also an issue that needs to be addressed. “Due to the high inflation, tenants with index leases have to cope with particularly high rent increases.” For the first time, Geywitz also mentions furnished apartments as a problem: “Here the rents are not transparent. We should take action against landlords putting a few old pieces of furniture in the apartment and thus circumventing the regulations of the rental price brake.”
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