Grüne on housing

The Greens want far more buildings to be retrofitted for energy efficiency without tenants being pushed out. A tiered model would require owners to start with the buildings in the worst energy condition and would cap more tightly what can be passed on to rents. Costs are to be shared fairly among landlords, the public sector and tenants.

The Greens want more buildings to be renovated. The buildings then need less energy for heating. Owners should have to start with the worst buildings. Rents should not rise as much because of this. No one should lose their home because of it.

The funding program "Effiziente GebäudePLUS" is to be revived. The platform is critical of the existing modernization surcharge on rents because, in its view, it does not guarantee savings. At the state level, the party wants to examine further relief for tenants during retrofits. In Milieuschutz areas (neighborhoods with special protection against displacement), the state is to fund ambitious retrofits and advise owners. Every borough is to get an independent energy advice service that is free for low-income households. In public facilities, climate-friendly ventilation and evaporative cooling are to take priority over air conditioning.

The Greens want to enforce the right to adequate housing in Berlin's state constitution and use all of the state's lawmaking powers to do so. The focus is mainly on large, profit-driven housing companies. In the long run, most of the housing market is to serve the common good, following Vienna's example.

Everyone in Berlin should have a suitable home. The Greens want to protect renters better. For example, from very high rents and from eviction. Big housing companies above all should follow strict rules. The city should keep its land and not sell it.

Tenants are to be protected from excessive rents, termination of their leases, and demolition. The districts are to get qualified staff, access to data, and binding powers for inspection, advice, and enforcement. According to the platform, small private landlords who rent fairly are not the focus. The state-owned housing companies are to be permanently committed to the common good and more closely supervised. The party wants to strengthen cooperatives, foundations, and similar providers. Public land is not to be sold but increased.

The Greens want a law requiring landlords with more than 50 units to offer a share of their apartments at affordable rents and to set aside money for maintenance. Violations would lead to trustees being appointed and profits being skimmed off. Landlords who repeatedly refuse to comply would have to sell their apartments.

The Greens want a new law for big landlords. It applies to those with more than 50 apartments. They must rent out some apartments at low prices. They must also save money for repairs. Those who break the rules face tough penalties.

The share of affordable units would depend on the size of the company. Maintenance reserves would have to be invested in the buildings for that purpose. Rather than relying on fines alone, trustees would ensure proper upkeep and socially oriented letting, and profits from violations could be confiscated. Large landlords who repeatedly ignore the rules would be required to sell their holdings. The platform also plans a housing register to reveal who owns which property, and a state housing office to monitor compliance and support the boroughs.

The Greens want to keep pushing forward the referendum "Deutsche Wohnen & Co. enteignen" (expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co.) and to support the initiative behind it. The platform considers socializing large housing portfolios legally possible and affordable. It accuses the outgoing government of stalling implementation.

Berliners voted to take over big housing companies. The Greens want to carry out this vote. They support the group behind it. The party says this is legally possible. It also says Berlin can pay for it.

The platform points to the findings of the expert commission and to the initiative's draft bill. In the party's view, both show that socialization is lawful and can be financed. The Greens criticize that the initiative had to draft a bill itself and see this as a failure of the CDU-SPD government. As background, the platform cites tenants being displaced by condo conversions and rising rents.

The Greens want to tighten and better enforce the ban on misusing housing for other purposes. Misuse would carry a minimum fine of 50,000 euros, and housing left empty for six months could be placed under compulsory administration. Neighborhood preservation zones (Milieuschutz) would also be expanded.

Apartments should be for living in. The Greens want to stop illegal vacation rentals. The fine should be at least 50,000 euros. If an apartment stays empty for six months, the state can manage it. In the end, it can become public property.

A schedule of fines with a floor of 50,000 euros is planned. A public interactive map and app would make it easier to report and pursue suspected illegal vacation rentals; the use of houseboats as vacation rentals would also be reviewed. The trustee model is to be applied to make vacant buildings habitable again, with socialization as a last resort. Boroughs such as Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Spandau or Marzahn-Hellersdorf would get support in designating new preservation zones. More staff would work to stop furnished short-term rentals in these zones.

The Greens want a general ban on demolishing apartment buildings, along with monitoring of demolitions. At the same time, converting existing buildings into housing would become easier. A funding program is meant to boost the conversion of offices into apartments.

The Greens want to ban tearing down apartment buildings. They say buildings are often torn down to build costly new ones. Converting old buildings should become easier. Offices should become apartments. There should be public money for this.

The platform justifies the ban by saying buildings stand empty or make way for expensive new construction because of speculation or neglected upkeep. Funding would also cover multigenerational shared housing, explicitly including for queer people. Small, accessible and affordable apartments are to be created within existing housing estates so older people can stay in their neighborhood. New housing is to come mainly from adding stories, converting attics and infill, as well as in new urban districts.

The Greens want to set up a purchasing agency for apartments converted into condos and to have authorities review evictions for the owner's personal use. A central register and a cross-check with resident registration data are meant to expose false claims. Tenant counseling and rent checks would be expanded.

Some landlords end a lease because they want to move in themselves. The Greens want to check this more closely. An office should record all such cases. Berlin should also buy apartments so tenants can stay. Tenants should get more free advice.

An emergency program would fund the purchase of buildings split into condos and of individual condos. The cooperative real estate agency GImA and borough-level bodies that help tenants and cooperatives buy jointly would be strengthened. Whether owners actually move in after an eviction would be checked automatically against registration office data. Especially vulnerable people would get replacement housing from state-owned companies in emergencies. The plan also includes more free tenant counseling, more locations for the rent review office, legal protection for low-income households, and stronger checks on excessive rents by job centers, social welfare offices and boroughs.

The Greens want to support housing cooperatives more strongly instead of subsidizing home purchases. People with low and middle incomes would get help buying cooperative shares. A "Genossenschaftspakt Berlin" (cooperative pact) would address red tape, financing and access to land.

A cooperative belongs to its members. People who live there have a secure home. The Greens want to give cooperatives more support. People with little money should get help buying shares. Berlin should also provide land to cooperatives.

The platform considers broad support for home ownership unworkable given real estate prices and criticizes the current government's subsidy program as unfair. Cooperative housing is to count as an equally valid form of retirement provision. The pact would be worked out with cooperatives and nonprofit-oriented providers; city land would be granted on long-term ground leases with low fixed interest, or alternatively with buyback rights for Berlin. Also planned are a coordination office, a public-interest principle in procurement rules, a review of loan guarantees for new cooperatives, and opening funding programs to models such as the Mietshäuser Syndikat. At the federal level, the Greens push for more benefits under the new nonprofit housing status.

The Greens want to push at the federal level for a reform of tenancy law and the Federal Building Code. Key elements are a rent cap, a permanent rent brake with penalties, and a ban on new inflation-indexed leases. The way land reference values are calculated and anti-discrimination rules in housing would also change.

Many rent rules are made at the national level. The Greens want to change these rules. Berlin should be allowed to cap rents. New leases should not rise with prices anymore. Tenants should be better protected from losing their home.

The rent cap would come through an opt-in clause for the states or nationwide; rent gouging and excessive rents would be fought more effectively. Existing indexed leases would get a ceiling on increases, furnished short-term rentals would be sharply limited, and evictions for personal use made harder. Added to this are stronger rights of first refusal, a permanent citywide ban on condo conversions, a lower ceiling on rent increases, and a rent index covering 20 years of rents instead of six. Land and market valuation would be reformed so that land reference values fall and rise more slowly. Exemptions for the housing market in the General Equal Treatment Act would be removed; in Berlin, the office against discrimination in housing would be strengthened.

The Greens want to set binding public-interest goals for Berlin's state-owned housing companies and have parliament oversee their management more closely. The companies would be strengthened financially so that social housing and energy retrofits are possible without further rent increases. Tenants would get more say.

Berlin owns almost 400,000 apartments. The Greens want fixed social goals for these housing companies. Parliament should oversee them more closely. Berlin should give the companies more money. Tenants should have more say.

The plan calls for a citywide steering framework with targets, performance indicators and long-term investment planning for existing stock and new construction. A regular public "Transparenzbericht Wohnen" (housing transparency report) and qualified supervisory boards would be added. Tenants would have a say on matters such as modernization; moving to a smaller, senior-friendly apartment would be made easier through fair terms. The platform sees the companies under pressure because they must deliver low rents, upkeep, retrofits and new construction with limited funds, and therefore wants to strengthen Berlin's role as their owner.

The Greens want Berlin's state-owned housing companies to rent more apartments to low-income households and especially vulnerable groups. A "rent dimmer" is meant to slow rent increases there, including after climate-related renovations.

Berlin owns housing companies. The Greens want these companies to give more homes to poor people. Rents there should rise more slowly. Rents should also not rise much after a climate renovation.

The quota for households holding a Wohnberechtigungsschein (certificate of eligibility for subsidized housing) is to go up, and new buildings and major renovations should include more wheelchair-accessible apartments than required. The program calls for a rent dimmer, better hardship rules, a moratorium on evictions and a plan to prevent homelessness. The companies are to apply the "Berlin vermietet fair!" guidelines against discrimination in renting. A fund for social and ecological modernization and limits on modernization surcharges are meant to cap increases in gross rents; hardship aid is planned for high heating costs. In return, the companies are expected to build local heating networks and maintain social and cultural facilities in neighborhoods.

The Greens want to make it harder to sell municipal housing by adding a rule to Berlin's constitution. The program justifies this with the past sale of more than 200,000 municipal apartments, which it calls a historic mistake.

Berlin once sold many of its own apartments. The Greens call that a mistake. They want a new rule in Berlin's constitution. The rule should slow down such sales.

The plan is a so-called privatization brake in the state constitution. According to the program, earlier governments sold over 200,000 municipal apartments, with effects still felt today. The rule is meant to keep this from happening again. In the party's view, the apartments belong to the people of Berlin.

The Greens want to rent vacant ground-floor spaces of the state-owned companies at capped rents to social and cultural users. At the same time, neighborhoods are to be strengthened through more participation and community work, especially in large housing estates.

Some ground-floor shops are empty. The Greens want to rent them out cheaply. For example to youth clubs, artists and neighborhood groups. Community work in neighborhoods should also get more money and support.

An immediate program is meant to open vacant ground-floor spaces to social organizations, cultural workers, youth facilities and neighborhood initiatives. A social commercial rent model with award criteria geared to the common good is to be developed. District participation offices, social-area planning, neighborhood coordination, neighborhood management and mobile community work are to be expanded. In areas with particular needs, the party wants to keep investing in social and cultural infrastructure and in public spaces.

The Greens want new housing to be created mainly within existing built-up areas and on land that is already paved. Green courtyards and unsealed land are to be preserved; the party rejects new office towers built against the will of districts and neighborhoods.

The Greens want to build new homes. But not on meadows or in green courtyards. Building should happen on gaps, vacant lots and parking lots. Homes should be built above supermarkets. The Greens reject tall office towers that neighbors do not want.

A survey of potential for socially compatible and ecological building in existing areas is to start in every district, based on a binding "Gutes Quartier" (good neighborhood) guideline. Inner-development plans and social infrastructure are to come before any infill. Multi-story housing should replace low-rise structures such as supermarkets or parking lots, and slightly taller buildings should not immediately fall under high-rise rules. The program considers high-rises useful when state-owned or nonprofit companies create permanently affordable housing there. The party rejects the Senate taking planning authority away from districts. It wants to coordinate affordable new construction along S-Bahn and regional rail lines with Brandenburg.

The Greens want existing housing to be used better by advising older people in particular on remodeling, splitting an apartment or moving. New buildings should include as many apartments as possible that can be divided or combined.

Many people need a different home when they get older. The Greens want to help with advice. For example with remodeling or moving nearby. New apartments should be easy to split or join.

A social and ecological housing advice service is meant to help with reducing barriers, with remodeling to split an apartment, and with finding senior housing or shared forms of living. Moves that people want within their familiar surroundings are to be supported. These needs are to be considered when new neighborhoods are planned. So-called switchable apartments would allow a large unit to be split into two small ones or two small ones to be joined into a family apartment.

The Greens want to stop selling state-owned land and lay this down in a land protection law. Land is to be bought up, leased under heritable building rights and awarded to the best concept rather than the highest bidder.

Berlin should no longer sell its land. A law should say so. The state should also buy more land. The best idea decides who may use a plot. Not the most money.

A purchase fund is meant to secure strategically important land; districts and common-good organizations could also draw on it. A buyback right is planned for formerly state-owned plots that are hoarded or misused. The state-owned property manager BIM is to focus more on the common good than on high revenue. A land and property agency is to steer awards and disclose them in a central database. A fixed share of plots is to go to cooperatives and common-good organizations under Erbbaurecht (long-term ground leases) at low fixed interest rates. Awarding by concept is to become a legal requirement, with at least 30 percent reserved for common-good organizations.

The Greens want half of the apartments in new developments under the Berlin model to be rent-controlled. In addition, shares for affordable commercial space and for cultural and creative space are to be required.

Anyone planning a large building project in Berlin must build affordable homes. The Greens want half of the homes to be affordable. Affordable rooms for businesses and culture should be built too.

The Berlin model sets out what developers must provide when the state creates new building rights. The quota for rent-controlled apartments is to rise to 50 percent. A share of affordable commercial space is to be added, and municipal commercial yards are to be rebuilt. A binding quota is planned for cultural and creative space in new neighborhoods. The party is examining whether the model can also be used to create or fund secondary school places.

The Greens want to change the building code so that serial and climate-friendly construction and remodeling become easier and cheaper. Renewable and low-carbon building materials are to be used in new construction and renovation.

The Greens want simpler rules for building. Building and remodeling should get faster and cheaper. Houses should be made of wood, clay or straw. That should help the climate.

Type approvals and a digital platform for building applications are meant to speed up permits; the party supports approaches to low-cost construction along the lines of the Hamburg standard. The state-owned housing companies are to build ecologically and cut costs through shared construction capacity. The Schumacher Quartier is to be built as a large timber neighborhood with flexible floor plans and many small, barrier-free apartments. A possible International Building Exhibition in 2034/37 should center on remodeling existing buildings and on climate protection. Climate protection and accessibility should also be possible in listed buildings, supported by a "Runder Tisch Baukultur" (round table on building culture).

The Greens want to develop new neighborhoods that are climate-neutral, mixed-use and built around short distances. By 2030, no additional land is to be sealed on balance.

New neighborhoods should be good for the climate. Daycare, school, shops and buses should be close. They should be there from the start. From 2030, Berlin should on balance pave over no new ground.

Daycare centers, schools, public transit, green spaces, culture, sports and local shops are to be planned in from the start; transit should be usable when the first residents move in. Under the 15-minute city principle, everyday destinations should be within walking distance, with car-free mobility options. Existing buildings are to be kept wherever possible rather than torn down. Construction is to take place primarily on land that is already sealed. Heat and energy are to do without fossil sources. Berlin is to become a sponge city, with greened streets, trees and cooling features.

The Greens want to convert existing buildings rather than demolish them, calling for a shift in how the city builds. New neighborhoods are to be developed with non-profit partners and cooperatives and include squares, green space, sports areas and social facilities from the start.

The Greens do not want to tear down old buildings. They want to rebuild them for new uses. New neighborhoods should have squares, green areas and space for sports. Housing cooperatives should help build them. Children and young people should have a say.

The platform calls for using resources more efficiently, avoiding vacancies and preventing demolition wherever possible. New neighborhoods are to include social and public facilities that nearby areas lack. Ground floors should house shops, local services, wheelchair-accessible apartments or apartments for older people. Children, young people and marginalized groups are to take part in planning and get accessible playgrounds and meeting places of their own. Space for culture should be planned into larger building projects from the outset and offered at affordable rates, and temporary uses such as the TXL model site are to continue. Planning should also take the needs of animals into account.

The Greens want to treat housing in the Berlin-Brandenburg region as a single market. Berlin housing companies are to build and renovate in smaller surrounding towns as well, and public transit and cycling routes are to be expanded along the settlement corridors.

The Greens also look at Brandenburg when it comes to housing. Berlin housing companies should build and renovate homes in nearby towns too. Towns with empty apartments should get help. Buses and trains to these towns should get better.

The platform refers to the capital region as a whole and to the cooperation areas of the Kommunales Nachbarschaftsforum (a forum of Berlin districts and neighboring municipalities). It wants to use the Berlin settlement star, meaning development along the corridors that run from Berlin into the surrounding area. Municipalities with vacant housing are to receive support. As a precondition, the party names the expansion of public transit, cycling and walking and of the necessary infrastructure along these corridors.

The Greens want to build the neighborhoods that have been in planning for years or are already fully planned, rather than debating new sites. In the party's view, Berlin lacks implementation, not land. Plans that would pave over ecologically important areas are to be reviewed and changed.

The Greens want to actually build the planned neighborhoods now. Many plans have been ready for years. They reject new debates about more sites. But important natural areas should stay open.

The platform criticizes that debates about ever more possible building sites each need decades of lead time. As an example of a plan that should change, it cites Späthsfelde, where the dense development planned by the Senate would remove around 380 allotment gardens. The party wants to secure habitats for endangered species there. At the same time, the area could provide compensation sites that make housing construction possible elsewhere.

The Greens want to prevent people from losing their homes in order to head off homelessness. Evictions are to be possible only when a replacement apartment is available. The rules on housing costs covered for benefit recipients are to be changed so that actual rents are covered.

The Greens want people to keep their homes. No one should be evicted without a new place to live. In winter there should be no evictions if possible. The welfare office should cover real rent costs better.

The party advocates a halt to evictions at least in winter and for especially vulnerable people. The AV-Wohnen, Berlin's rule on reasonable housing costs, is to be put on a legally sound footing and follow Bremen and Hamburg, where a sample survey of rents actually paid is used alongside the rent index. The aim is that benefit recipients no longer have to cover a gap in housing costs themselves. Hardship rules are to be expanded, and the platform rejects cutting rent and heating support as a sanction. The districts' social housing assistance offices are to offer more outreach social work and online advice.

The Greens want to place homeless people in regular apartments and improve shelters in the meantime. A state office for accommodation is to coordinate places, and in the long run only nonprofit providers should be allowed to run them. The so-called protected housing market is to grow.

The Greens want better shelters for people without a home. A new office should organize the places. Later, only nonprofit groups should run shelters. Nonprofit means they do not make a profit. More people should get a normal apartment.

Shelters are to have fixed minimum standards, violence protection plans, social counseling and independent complaint bodies. Small, decentralized facilities are preferred, and the districts are to receive a yearly flat rate per place for this. A city unit is to recruit landlords for the protected housing market, and the guarantee against lost rent is to be extended to ten years. Social providers are to be supported with loan guarantees, funding programs and the general-tenant model. Also planned are a “Haus der Hilfe” as a central contact point for homeless people and the continuation of the hardship fund for energy debts.

The Greens want to stop approving new office buildings for the time being. Vacant offices are to become affordable apartments with the help of a new funding program. The platform points to more than 2.2 million square meters of unused office space in Berlin.

Many offices in Berlin are empty. The Greens want to turn them into homes. The state should give money for this. For now, there should be no new office buildings.

A moratorium is to suspend new office construction, and no further building rights for it are to be granted. Empty offices are to be converted into affordable housing wherever possible, with financial support. In the party's view, Berlin currently needs better use of existing buildings rather than more offices.

The Greens want to create more accessible housing and promote communal forms of living. Medical practices, hospitals, and sports facilities are also to become accessible to people with disabilities step by step.

Berlin should get more homes without barriers. Hospitals and sports halls should also become accessible to everyone. Residential homes should offer more protection from violence. There should be more sports programs for people with disabilities.

In Milieuschutz areas (neighborhood protection zones where renovations are restricted), accessibility renovations are to be allowed where sensible. Cluster apartments, multigenerational houses, and communal living are to be supported. Residential facilities are to get better protection against violence, women's representatives, and more counseling in easy-to-read language; women's shelters and safe apartments are to keep accessible places available. Added to this are a strategy against loneliness with inclusive meeting places, funded assistance for volunteering, and suitable housing for refugees with disabilities. The "Barrierefreie Stadt" round table is to be revived to gradually convert health care facilities. Sports facilities and swimming pools are to be made inclusive, and inclusive sports and rehab sports programs expanded.

The Greens want to build up an Azubiwerk (a service organization for vocational trainees) that runs affordable dorms, and to strengthen the Studierendenwerk Berlin (student services organization) financially. A federal-state pact would secure student services organizations nationwide. The party rejects tuition fees for all students.

Trainees and students need cheap housing. A new organization should run dorms for trainees. The student services organization should get more money. Cafeteria food should stay affordable. Studying should not cost tuition fees.

The "Studium und Ausbildung" pact would set binding minimum standards for funding student services organizations. It calls for more and renovated dorms with rents tied to the housing allowance in federal student aid. Cafeteria prices would stay stable, and every larger university would have one cafeteria open in the evening. In Berlin, a new framework agreement would stabilize the Studierendenwerk, and the state would reliably co-fund all projects in the "Junges Wohnen" (young housing) program. The party rules out tuition fees regardless of nationality.