BSW on housing

The BSW wants to strengthen nonprofit housing construction and provide municipal housing companies with public money. Social housing is to stay rent-restricted permanently; the platform cites Vienna as a model.

The BSW wants more affordable homes to be built. Cities and nonprofit companies should get cheap loans for this. Social housing should stay affordable forever. Building should go faster.

Nonprofit and municipal companies are to receive low-interest loans and launch a large building program. Instead of raising housing benefits, the state is to strengthen the equity of municipal companies so that rental homes stay publicly owned for good. Serial construction and a simplified permit process for social housing are to speed up projects, and building rules are to be reviewed. The BSW wants to curb land speculation and skim off at least part of the planning-related value gains of private owners.

The BSW wants to replace the Mietpreisbremse (rent brake) with a nationwide rent cap. In regions where housing is unaffordable on a normal income, rents are not to rise until the end of the decade.

The BSW wants a rent cap for all of Germany. That is a fixed limit on rents. In expensive areas, rents should not rise until 2030. Landlords should pay for renovations themselves.

The rent freeze is to apply where people with a normal income can no longer afford adequate housing. Landlords are to bear renovation costs. The BSW wants a law against rent gouging and against sharply inflated rents for furnished rooms. It backs stricter rules on converting homes into commercial vacation rentals and against vacancy.