Grüne on housing

The Greens want to secure affordable housing with rent caps, more dorms for apprentices and students, and social housing construction. Communal forms of housing are to be supported because the party regards housing as a basic right.

The Greens want housing to stay affordable. Rents should have an upper limit. There should be more dorms for apprentices and students. The state should get more social housing built.

Federal funds for social housing are to be made usable in Saxony-Anhalt; the party wants to examine a rent register with an open outcome. A social leasing model for technology such as heat pumps or storage is planned. Cooperatives, multigenerational housing and tenant-run projects would be supported and the elevator program revived. Municipalities get help with qualified rent indexes and with building land, primarily in existing areas. Advice on splitting apartments and voluntary home swaps is meant to lower floor space per person.

The Greens regard housing as a human right and want homeless people to be offered a permanent home first ("Housing First"). They also support a statewide pause on evictions for rent arrears in publicly owned housing.

The Greens say everyone should have a home. People without a home should get a fixed place to live first. This is called "Housing First." People with rent debts should not be evicted from public housing.

According to the platform, no one should be left without an offer of a permanent place to live. The "Housing First" approach is to be given priority so that people get safe, lasting housing quickly. The eviction moratorium would apply to publicly owned apartments and to cases involving rent arrears. The Greens also plan an advertising campaign, mainly in Berlin and Leipzig, to attract young families to rural Saxony-Anhalt.

The Greens want existing buildings to take priority over new construction and want to turn the building code into a "conversion code." Renovation subsidies are to be simplified and made accessible to low-income households.

The Greens want to renovate old buildings rather than build new ones. Building rules should make this easier. People with little money should also get support for renovation. The state should give guarantees for them.

Demolition would be allowed only where social or climate-policy reasons require it. The building code would focus on preserving, converting and renovating buildings and be aligned with the codes of other states; municipalities would get more leeway for climate, open-space and neighborhood development. State default guarantees are planned for households without savings so they can carry out energy retrofits. New building land would be designated only where public transit access exists or can be ensured. At the federal level, the Greens back mandatory insurance against natural hazards.

The Greens want to upgrade city and town centers, reduce vacancies and promote neighborhoods with little car traffic. Urban planning is to take account of short distances, safety and the needs of different groups.

The Greens want lively town centers. Empty shops should get new uses. There should be fewer cars in neighborhoods. Important places should be reachable in 15 minutes. People should have a say early in planning.

Municipalities would get help reducing vacancies and enabling temporary uses, for example by start-ups, pop-up stores or non-commercial meeting places. Rooftop solar, greening, heat protection and passive cooling would be subsidized, and a child-friendly residential environment would become a condition for funding. Through traffic is to be limited and car-free zones made easier to set up. The platform backs the 15-minute city and wants to extend it into a "60-minute region" through investment in cycling and public transit. Residents are to be involved in public planning on a binding basis from "phase 0"; allotment gardens are to be secured in spatial planning.

The Greens want to secure and broaden municipalities' right of first refusal on property in order to prevent land speculation and support affordable housing. Against long-term vacancy, municipalities would get graduated tools, up to an easier takeover of properties.

Municipalities should more often be allowed to buy land first. The Greens want to stop speculation with land this way. If a building stays empty for a long time, municipalities should be able to step in. As a last step, they can take over the building more easily.

According to the platform, municipalities need tools against the privatization of public land; the right of first refusal is also meant to serve infrastructure for the common good. For long-term vacancy, the plan includes deadlines for use or renovation, higher levies or mandatory temporary use. Only if such steps fail would taking over long-unused or developable buildings be made easier.