CSU on housing

The CSU wants to trigger more private investment in housing, mainly through better depreciation rules and tax deductions. It wants to block new requirements that make building more expensive and to ease conversions and company housing.

The CSU wants more homes to be built. People who build should pay less tax. There should be no new costly building rules. Building permits should be handled online. Companies should find it easier to build homes for their staff.

The plan includes higher declining-balance depreciation (AfA) for new residential buildings, meaning faster tax write-offs in the early years. Owner-occupiers are to get better deductions for special expenses. Tighter rules, such as those on disposing of excavated soil, should not make new construction more expensive. The digital building application is to become standard. Converting offices into housing, adding stories and finishing attics are to become easier. Company housing should be easier to build and taxed less.

The CSU wants to merge Bavaria's three state housing companies into one and supply it with capital so it keeps building new homes. Funding for social housing is to continue permanently at a high level.

Bavaria owns three companies that build homes. The CSU wants to turn them into one. This company should get enough money. The state should keep spending a lot on low-cost housing. Rents in state-owned homes should not rise until 2025.

BayernHeim, StadiBau and Siedlungswerk Nürnberg are to become a single company. The state is to hand over its own land to it at reduced rates under long-term ground leases. The so-called housing billion for social housing subsidies is to be made permanent to allow reliable investment. The municipal housing subsidy program is to run until 2030. For state-owned apartments, the CSU pledges not to raise rents until 2025.

The CSU wants average earners to be able to afford their own home. It calls for an allowance on the real estate transfer tax for first-time owner-occupied purchases and wants to keep Bavaria's rate at 3.5 percent.

The CSU wants more people to be able to buy a home. Buyers pay a tax on the purchase. For a first home, part of the price should be tax-free. This tax should stay low in Bavaria. Families should get low-cost loans from the state.

The CSU wants to press the federal government for better tax conditions, including more leeway for the states on real estate transfer, inheritance and gift taxes, and better depreciation. The Bayern-Darlehen (state home loan), which helps families buying for the first time with reduced interest and state guarantees, is to be expanded. Municipalities are to get support for programs that give local residents priority for building land. The platform sees home ownership as protection against poverty in old age and wants to prevent overregulation of owners so they can hold and manage property themselves.