FDP on housing

The FDP wants to create new housing in downtown Bremen, mainly by building upward. Permits are to be faster, commercial space easier to convert into apartments, and a high-rise plan is to define where tall buildings are allowed.

More people should be able to live in downtown Bremen. The FDP wants to build higher for this. Attics should become apartments more easily. Offices and shops should also be turned into apartments. Permits should be faster.

The platform cites high demand and rising prices as the reason. Besides building on vacant lots, attic conversions are to be pushed through faster procedures. Converting commercial space to housing in existing buildings is to become easier, and co-housing with shared kitchens, bathrooms and outdoor areas is to be given a chance. For high-rises, the FDP plans a concept with defined zones, an adjusted maximum building height and faster permits within those zones. The necessary infrastructure is to be planned alongside.

The FDP wants a new waterfront district to emerge in Bremerhaven's northern Fischereihafen over two decades. Investors are to get as much freedom as possible, and the district is to be sustainable and climate-positive.

A new district by the water should be built in Bremerhaven. It is called Werftquartier. Companies that build there should be able to decide a lot themselves. The district should be good for the climate. One housing area should have no cars.

The area stretches from the northern Fischereihafen to Geestemünde; according to the platform, initial plans exist and investors are ready. A flagship project is to be built in one of the large residential areas. The FDP can imagine placing parking at the edge and linking the area to public transit with new technology such as robo-buses running frequently. A car-free residential area is meant to raise quality of life and keep young families in the city.

The FDP wants to designate more building areas quickly, for apartment buildings as well as for single-family and two-family homes. In the platform's view, more land and taller buildings will help against scarce housing and rising rents.

The FDP wants new land for building, and fast. Apartments should be built there. Houses for one or two families should be built there too. The FDP says: More homes make housing cheaper.

Planning procedures are to be sped up so that young families can stay in or move to Bremen and Bremerhaven. New areas should be well connected to public transit and infrastructure. In existing neighborhoods, the FDP wants to check where additional housing can be created. Existing zoning plans are to be simplified. The party also wants to offer sites for tiny houses, meaning very small homes of about 50 square meters, and to make building projects accessible.

The FDP wants to abolish the rule that at least 30 percent of units in new building projects must be social housing. Instead of subsidizing apartments, it wants to support people directly, for example through Wohngeld (housing benefit).

Today there is a rule for new building projects. 30 percent of the homes must be social housing. The FDP wants to drop this rule. It wants to give money to people directly instead. One way is Wohngeld, a housing benefit.

According to the platform, buyers of private homes pay for the social housing share through the purchase price, which the FDP calls unfair. The party welcomes the extension of Wohngeld to more recipients because it sees this as making the housing market more flexible. Municipalities should pay closer attention to which kinds of homes people on low wages need. A state-subsidized apartment is meant to be used only temporarily. The goal is for as many people as possible to live without state help.

The FDP wants to introduce an allowance of up to 500,000 euros on the real estate transfer tax for a first owner-occupied home. In addition, municipal housing companies are to offer rent-to-own models, and the property tax is to fall to the level of the surrounding region.

People who buy a home pay a tax. The FDP wants to drop this tax for a first home of your own. This should apply up to a price of 500,000 euros. Renters should be able to buy their home step by step. This is called rent-to-own.

The allowance would apply only to the first property that buyers live in themselves. The FDP wants to bring the property tax level in the state of Bremen in line with that of the surrounding region, so that buying real estate in Bremen and Bremerhaven becomes more attractive. Under rent-to-own, the municipal housing companies would offer people with lower incomes a kind of financing. In the platform's view, ownership also serves as provision for old age.

The FDP wants to review building rules, remove those it sees as unnecessary and lower ancillary costs. It regards the state government's "Bremer Standard" for new building areas as excessive in many respects and calls for technology neutrality in heat generation.

The FDP wants fewer rules for building. This should make building cheaper. Bremen has its own rules for new building areas. They are called the Bremer Standard. The FDP thinks these rules are too strict.

According to the platform, new standards, retrofit duties and rising levies burden small private landlords in particular. Anyone who meets the Bremer Standard requirements should get funding from the municipality for it. The FDP sees creating and maintaining public spaces as a job for the state or city, not for private parties. It criticizes the requirement to use at least 70 percent of all roof area in a neighborhood regardless of suitability. The city should implement standards in its own buildings first before obliging citizens to follow them.

The FDP rejects state intervention in the rental market such as the Mietpreisbremse (rent brake) and a rent cap, as well as expropriations in housing. Instead, more should be built, which in its view will lower rents and prices in the long run.

The FDP does not want state limits on rents. It does not want expropriations either. Expropriation means: The state takes homes away from their owners. The FDP wants to build more homes instead. Then rents will fall, it says.

In the platform's view, the rent brake, a rent cap and expropriations ultimately lead to less housing. The FDP calls expropriations a severe interference with private property that costs the state a lot of money and creates no new homes. Its principle is "Bauen statt Klauen" (build instead of steal). A larger supply is meant to make it easier to find an apartment or a house in Bremen.

The FDP calls for Bremen to quickly get a qualified Mietspiegel (rent index), meaning a recognized overview of customary local rents. This is meant to make the market more transparent and strengthen competition.

The FDP wants a rent index for Bremen. A rent index is a list. It shows what rents are usual in the city. This makes it easier to compare rents.

According to the platform, a rent index makes prices easier to compare. In the FDP's view, more transparency promotes competition. That in turn is expected to lead to lower prices and a better supply of housing.

The FDP wants to make building more dorms for students and trainees more attractive and to promote investment in them. According to the platform, too little affordable housing worsens the shortage of skilled workers in the long run.

Students and trainees need cheap homes. Often they cannot find any. The FDP wants more dorms for them. Building them should pay off more. Old dorms should be renovated.

Funding is meant to go to investments in new apartments and dorms for trainees and to renovations of existing units. The expansion should follow actual need so that young people stay in the city. In Bremerhaven, the FDP can imagine shared housing for both groups in the Rudloffquartier near the street known as Alte Bürger.

The FDP wants to make building permits faster, simpler and digital. If the authority does not respond to a complete application within a set period, preferably three months, the application is to count as approved.

The FDP wants faster building permits. People should be able to apply online. The office should answer within three months. If it does not answer, the application counts as approved. Then building can start.

The plan is a partly automated permit procedure with a so-called deemed approval. Zoning plan procedures, which the platform says often take several years, are also to be revised and simplified; once deadlines pass, consent would count as given there too. Building applications are to be filed through an online portal, where documents can be added. The FDP sees building more homes as the most effective remedy against rising prices.

The FDP wants to promote housing and care arrangements that let older people live independently with the support they need. It sees these as an alternative to nursing homes that costs less and relieves relatives and long-term care insurers.

Many old people want to stay in their own home for a long time. The FDP wants to support new ways of living for them. These include shared apartments for seniors and houses for several generations. Assisted living should also get support. The FDP says this is cheaper than a nursing home.

Support is to go to innovative housing models, multigenerational houses, shared apartments for seniors, and help from family, neighbors and self-help. Housing construction is to be part of age-appropriate, barrier-free urban planning. In assisted living, residents help one another and also receive professional support. The platform argues that many older people need help with daily life but not yet full nursing care.