Linke on housing

The Left calls for a rent cap for all of Germany that not only limits rents but lowers them in tight markets. As an immediate step, rent increases are to be ruled out for six years.

The Left wants a rent cap for all of Germany. Rents should not rise for six years. Very high rents should even go down. Small shops and tradespeople should also be able to get protection.

In tight housing markets, especially high rents are to be reduced. The only exception to the six-year freeze would be nonprofit landlords with very low rents so far, who could raise them slightly to cover costs. Stepped and index-linked rents would be banned and furnished rentals strictly regulated. The party considers the existing rent brake largely ineffective. The federal government is also to enable states and municipalities to cap rents for small businesses, trades, cultural venues and nonprofit providers.

The Left wants to protect tenants more strongly against termination, tightly limit owner-occupancy claims and generally ban converting rental units into condos. It also calls for a right to swap apartments and mandatory tenant councils.

Tenants should be better protected from losing their home. Landlords should only claim an apartment for close relatives. Rental apartments should no longer be turned into condos. Tenants should be able to swap apartments without paying more.

According to the platform, landlords often terminate leases in order to re-rent at higher prices. The party therefore demands permanent leases for everyone and owner-occupancy terminations only for first-degree relatives. A general conversion ban is to protect rental units. Landlords could refuse an apartment swap without a rent increase only for compelling reasons. Companies with more than ten apartments would have to set up tenant councils.

The Left wants to scrap the modernization surcharge so that renovations do not raise total rent including heating. Property tax is also no longer to be passed on to tenants, and housing benefit is to be easier to claim.

Today landlords can add renovation costs to the rent. The Left wants to end this. Tenants should also no longer pay the property tax. Housing benefit should be easier to get. Heating bills that are too high should be punished.

Renovations and heating replacements are not to raise the total rent including heating. Property tax would be removed from the operating costs that can be passed on. The party wants to make inflated heating bills from real estate and energy companies a punishable offense. The Wohngeld (housing benefit) process is to be greatly simplified, with a decision within three months; the platform says only about a third of those eligible receive it today.

The Left wants to put 20 billion euros a year into nonprofit housing and reach a 30 percent share of such housing in the medium term. Municipalities are to get rights of first refusal, and public subsidies would go only to nonprofit construction.

The state should spend 20 billion euros each year on affordable housing. Social housing should stay social housing forever. Cities should get the first chance to buy land. Public money should only go to nonprofit housing. Nonprofit means: not built to make a profit.

Social housing commitments would no longer expire, and spending on social housing would be exempt from the debt brake. Nonprofit housing status is to be made attractive through tax exemptions and priority for subsidies and public land. The municipal right of first refusal would return, be price-limited and cover all plots; a fund would help municipalities buy housing back. Speculative real estate gains would be taxed more, share deals banned and land value gains skimmed off. The platform cites Vienna as a model.

The Left wants to transfer the apartments of real estate corporations with more than 3,000 units into public ownership. It thereby backs the initiative Deutsche Wohnen & Co enteignen (Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co).

Some corporations own more than 3,000 apartments. The Left wants to bring these apartments into public ownership. A public body would then manage them. Only small shareholders should get compensation.

The housing stock would go to a public-law institution that is democratically managed. The platform considers compensation below market value legally possible. Compensation payments are planned only for small shareholders.

The Left wants to record vacant apartments and charge 10 euros per square meter so that leaving them empty does not pay. In cases of long vacancy, apartments would be temporarily seized and rented out.

Many apartments stand empty. The Left wants owners to pay a fee for that: 10 euros per square meter. If an apartment is empty for very long, the state should take it over for a time. Then it gets repaired and rented out.

Buildings that would need to be converted, finished or renovated for housing, where investors take no action, would also count as vacant. In long-term cases the apartment would be temporarily seized, fixed up at the owner's expense and rented. People who occupy housing that has been unused for at least a year would gain a permanent right to live there unless owners commit to renting at socially acceptable prices. Misuse of housing for other purposes would be banned. For rural regions, the platform plans structural policy and infrastructure investment.

The Left wants to enshrine a right to one's own home in the Basic Law and end homelessness. Evictions that lead to homelessness are to be banned.

Every person should have a right to their own home. This should be written in the constitution. Nobody should be evicted onto the street. Homeless people should get an apartment first. Refugees should no longer have to live in mass shelters.

The platform cites about 600,000 people without housing and 30,000 evictions a year. The party wants to anchor the "Housing First" approach, in which an apartment is provided first and other support follows; Finland serves as the example. Compulsory placement of refugees in mass shelters is to end. Regular housing that meets their needs is to be available for homeless people, seasonal and migrant workers and refugees.

The Left wants to stop energy-saving renovations from raising rents and, to that end, abolish the passing on of renovation costs to tenants. Demolishing existing buildings to make way for expensive new ones is to be largely banned.

Today landlords can add renovation costs to the rent. The Left wants to end this. After a renovation, housing should not cost more than before. Tearing down homes should only rarely be allowed.

According to the program, neutrality of total housing costs means that base rent plus the energy costs actually saved stay the same. The Left backs the one-third model of the tenants' association and the environmental group BUND. Landlords are to be required to use subsidies and pass on the benefit; the program says only 15 percent do so today. Demolition is only to be allowed if the building cannot be saved or if many times more housing is created. Real estate corporations are to submit renovation plans for their existing stock to municipalities by the end of 2026.