FDP on housing

The FDP wants to enable more people to buy a home of their own and to lower the ancillary costs. As soon as federal law permits, an allowance on the property transfer tax is to be introduced for owner-occupied homes. In most cases no property transfer tax would then be due.

Many people want their own house or apartment. Buyers pay a tax on the purchase. The FDP wants to drop this tax for most people who live in the home themselves. This should help young families most. Building should also become faster and easier.

According to the platform, 80 percent of people would like to own a home but fewer than half can afford it; it cites high construction and land costs and the property transfer tax as reasons. The party regards the state's 400 million euro relief program for buyers as an important step. Housing construction is to advance in all forms, through new builds and within existing buildings, which the FDP says also lowers rents. Building is to become simpler and faster, especially in high-demand urban areas, with stronger incentives for infill development. Instead of bans, the party relies on innovative solutions and also wants to keep rural areas attractive.

The FDP wants to enable more renters to buy a home, including people who cannot afford it so far. It relies on loans, grants and cheaper interest rates as well as a lower real estate transfer tax.

The FDP wants more renters to be able to buy a home. The state should help with loans and grants. The tax on buying a home should also go down.

The program names loans that replace missing equity, repayment grants and reduced interest rates as starting points, and the FDP also wants to push for these at the federal level. The state is not meant to pay for private property but to create conditions in which buyers can finance it themselves. Rent-to-own models are to be developed and tested where they make economic sense for both sides. After a tax allowance, the FDP wants to noticeably cut the real estate transfer tax in a second step.

The FDP wants to make considerably more land available for construction. State-owned plots are to be used, vacant lots recorded, and the growth of cities and towns supported.

The FDP wants more land for building. The state should offer its own plots. Empty gaps between houses should be listed and built on. Cities should also be allowed to grow.

The funding framework for cooperative land development is to be doubled. Registers of vacant lots and a systematic survey of densification potential are meant to reveal more places to build. The FDP supports rounding off residential areas and, in individual cases, building new districts. On scarce inner-city land, a share is to be set aside for social housing. Regional plans should use the new leeway in the state development plan to designate more residential land.

The FDP wants new high-rise buildings in tight housing markets and in neighborhoods facing particular challenges. They are meant to combine housing with education and community services and include some price-controlled apartments.

The FDP wants more high-rise buildings. They should stand where homes are scarce. The buildings should also have daycare centers and small shops. Some of the apartments should be cheap.

Agreements with investors are to fix specific shares of rent-capped and rent-controlled apartments. The exemption from the seven-story limit is to be used for architecturally ambitious multi-purpose towers, which the program contrasts with prefabricated housing blocks. The plan is a so-called vertical neighborhood with daycare, a neighborhood manager, small retail and concepts such as vertical farming. The FDP wants to attract internationally renowned architects for this.

The FDP wants to give more support to new construction technologies and materials so that building becomes cheaper and uses fewer resources. The circular 'Cradle to Cradle' principle is also to apply to the state's own building projects.

The FDP wants to support new building methods. Building should become cheaper and use fewer raw materials. Materials should be used again later. The state should start with its own buildings.

The program names 3D printing and digital planning with Building Information Modeling as technologies already supported. Under 'Cradle to Cradle', materials return to the material cycle after use; the state's own building and real estate agency is to apply it in future. Municipalities are to receive guidance on implementation. New building materials are to reach market maturity faster through funding projects and an experimentation clause in building regulations.

The FDP wants building permits to be issued faster. Procedures are to run fully digitally, deadlines are to be shortened, and the state is to support municipalities that are short of staff.

The FDP wants offices to handle building applications faster. Applications should be digital. The office should check within ten days if all papers are there. The state should help towns with staff.

The check of whether a building application is complete is to take no more than ten days. Specific targets for permits for new housing and more competition among municipalities are meant to create incentives for swift procedures. The state is to set up a task force with its own staff that municipalities can call on when building offices face unexpected bottlenecks. Duplicate structures are to be avoided and no staff taken away from municipalities.

The FDP wants to put tenant protection rules under review and adjust them as needed. Rules it considers unnecessary are to be dropped.

The FDP wants to check the rules that protect renters. One of them is the rent brake. It limits how high a new rent can be. Rules the FDP sees as unneeded should go.

The program names the Mietpreisbremse (rent brake), the cap on rent increases, and the waiting period before tenants can be given notice after a conversion to condominiums. These rules are to be evaluated and aligned with actual need. The program justifies this by saying that, in the FDP's view, local housing markets are increasingly easing.

The FDP wants to keep public funding for price-controlled housing and make it more effective. Obstacles that slow the uptake of funds are to be removed and additional private investment encouraged.

The state gives money for cheap housing. The FDP wants this money to really be used for building. Obstacles should be removed. Private investors should also put more money into cheap housing.

According to the program, North Rhine-Westphalia provides more money for subsidized housing than any other state, yet too few apartments are built with it. For the FDP, funding the construction and modernization of price-controlled housing remains the most important pillar. Incentives for investment in social housing are to be improved, for example for pension funds. The modernization drive for age-appropriate and energy-related renovation of existing buildings is to continue.

The FDP wants to further relax building rules so that conversions, extensions and densification create more housing. In addition, standards that the party believes make construction more expensive are to be reviewed.

The FDP wants fewer rules for building. Then it is easier to extend roofs and split apartments. The many building standards should also be checked. This should make building cheaper.

Rules on adding roof stories and on spacing between buildings are to be revised; splitting apartments is also meant to create small units. If a building standard holds up a housing project, it should still be approvable when the level of protection is achieved another way. Through the conference of state building ministers, the FDP wants to revise the contract with the German Institute for Standardization and have the number and level of standards reviewed; the program speaks of up to 24,000 standards in construction. The innovation clause for changes of use is to be extended to areas outside built-up zones and the approval period lengthened from twelve to 24 months.

The FDP wants to put more public money into building and renovating dormitories for students and apprentices. It says the supply of affordable places has fallen behind demand.

Students and apprentices need cheap rooms. The FDP wants more dorms built and old ones renewed. The state should give more money for this. It should also provide land.

The program sees a major need for renovation in existing dormitories. The state is to guarantee repayment and interest on the financing. It is also to provide its own land near campuses and, where possible, near vocational schools.

The FDP wants to turn city and village centers into places where retail, housing, restaurants and culture come together. It plans another downtown initiative, simpler building law and support for retailers.

The FDP wants to bring life back to town and village centers. Shops, homes, restaurants and culture should be close together there. Empty shops should get new uses. Shops get help with selling online.

Urban development funding is to create high-quality public spaces for all age groups, and green spaces are to be upgraded. Simpler rules are to apply to renovation, adding stories, and demolition with rebuilding in existing areas. Additional digital coaches are to advise shops free of charge on setting up an online offering. Vacant retail and office buildings should be convertible into housing. For small and mid-sized towns around metropolitan areas, the FDP wants to bring municipalities, the state and other players together in view of the trend toward working from home; co-working spaces are to be set up in rural areas.

The FDP wants to extend the projects of the state initiative "Endlich ein ZUHAUSE!" (A home at last) to every county and independent city. Homeless people would be placed in permanent housing and people at risk kept from losing their homes.

Some people have no home. The FDP wants to help them everywhere in the state. A state aid program should exist in all cities and counties. Women, young people and immigrants should get help that fits them.

The initiative relies on cooperation between social work, addiction counseling and the housing industry. In expanding it, the particular needs of homeless women, teenagers and young adults, and people with an immigrant background are to receive more attention. The platform points to funding that has already been increased substantially.