AfD on housing

The AfD wants to create a state fund of 50 million euros from which municipalities receive money to buy undeveloped land. This would let them take advantage of land prices that are still comparatively low and build up land reserves.

Land is still cheap in many places. The AfD wants to set up a fund with 50 million euros. A fund is a pot of money for one purpose. Towns can use it to buy empty land. Later they can turn it into building land.

The fund is meant to provide state money with little paperwork. If a municipality later sells a plot at a profit, for example after rezoning it as building land, it repays the grant to the fund and keeps the profit. The platform justifies the proposal by saying prices are already rising again. It argues that holding land reserves is becoming more important for the public sector for strategic reasons.

The AfD wants to reduce demand for housing by deporting rejected asylum seekers. It attributes rising rents to asylum migration over the past ten years.

The AfD says rents went up because of many asylum seekers. It wants to send rejected asylum seekers back home. Then fewer people would look for a home. The AfD expects price pressure to ease then.

According to the program, new construction could not make up for the extra demand caused by asylum migration. It says cheap apartments became more expensive first, followed by rents in all higher price ranges. The party considers affordable housing and open borders incompatible. Deporting rejected asylum seekers is meant to lower demand and ease pressure on prices.

The AfD wants to align the state building code with the national model building code and in some areas simplify it even further. Master craftsmen in all building trades would be allowed to plan and submit smaller projects in their field themselves. This is meant to lower construction costs.

The AfD wants simpler building rules in the state. The rules should match the shared model of the German states. Master craftsmen would be allowed to hand in small building plans themselves. Today people often need an architect for that. Building should get cheaper this way.

In the party's view, the state building code contains too many requirements and state-specific rules that cost architects, material manufacturers, and craftsmen money. Where the model code only reflects a minimal consensus among the states, the rules in the state would be loosened further. The AfD expects lower prices and more choice for builders. The kleine Bauvorlagenberechtigung, the right to submit building applications for smaller projects, would apply to masters in all building trades. The program cites master roofers, who currently may not plan a dormer. Planning and execution would then come from a single provider.

The AfD wants to make it easier to voluntarily convert a single-family home into a two-family home. At the same time it explicitly rejects any tax on living space. The aim is to free up unused housing, for example after children have moved out.

Some houses have become too big for the people in them. The AfD wants to make it easier to turn them into two homes. This should stay voluntary. The AfD rejects a tax on living space. Some building requirements would be dropped for this.

According to the program, conversion is currently hampered by hurdles in the state building code that require structural changes, among other things. The AfD wants to create a dedicated legal framework for this. The duty to justify new dwellings and additional fire protection requirements would be dropped, while the character of the neighborhood would be taken into account. The party opposes the idea that people in Germany live in too much space and calls it climate ideology.