Linke on housing

The Left wants energy retrofits to leave tenants' total rent including heating unchanged. Landlords would be allowed to pass on costs only up to the amount tenants save on energy. The same would apply when old oil and gas heating systems are replaced.

Homes should use less energy. For that, they need building work. The Left wants rent plus heating costs to stay the same after this work. Tenants should pay only as much extra as they save on energy.

Retrofits are to be sped up first in areas where many low-income tenants live. The costs passed on to tenants would be capped at their energy savings, including when fossil-fuel heating is replaced. A heating system running on renewable energy should pay off financially in the long run for tenants and homeowners. According to the platform, nobody should have to rely on oil or gas.

For affordable housing in Dresden and Leipzig, the Left wants an effective rent brake, a ban on converting homes to other uses, and a state housing construction company for social housing. In rural areas, it wants to subsidize building and renovating age-appropriate and family-friendly homes.

Homes in Dresden and Leipzig are expensive. The Left wants to limit rents. Homes should not be used for other purposes. A state-owned company should get many affordable homes built.

The platform distinguishes between the big cities and rural areas. In the cities, the new state company is meant to advance social housing construction on a large scale. In the countryside, the Left sees out-migration and vacancy as the main problem and wants to support suitable homes for older people and families.

The Left calls for more state money for social housing and changed funding rules. Social housing units should stay rent-controlled for as long as possible, ideally permanently. At the federal level, the party backs a new nonprofit housing status.

The Left wants more social housing to be built. The state should pay more for it. Social housing should stay cheap, if possible forever. Public housing companies should get support first.

Funding is to follow rising construction costs, and subsidies are to follow actual asking rents. Rent and occupancy restrictions are to run longer, and pilot projects are to test permanent restrictions. Support should go mainly to public and nonprofit-oriented companies, including in the areas surrounding big cities. A new nonprofit housing status is meant to create a lasting stock of social housing instead of subsidies usually limited to 20 years. For buildings renovated in the 1990s that need work again, the party calls for a program named "Serielles Sanieren Ost" (serial renovation east).

The Left wants a socialization law for profit-oriented housing companies. In its view, this is the only way to secure affordable housing for everyone in the long run. A public-law institution would manage the housing.

The Left wants to bring large housing companies into public hands. This is called socialization. There should be a law for it. A public body would then manage the apartments. This is meant to keep rents affordable.

The platform cites the Berlin campaign to expropriate large housing corporations as its model. The goal is a public-law institution that takes over the organization of housing. The party does not consider social housing construction and nonprofit housing status sufficient on their own.

The Left wants to protect tenants from sharply rising rents. It plans an effective rent brake, stronger protection against eviction, a ban on converting rentals into condos and, for the interim, a rent freeze. Rental apartments would no longer be allowed to serve as vacation rentals or stand empty for speculation.

The Left wants to limit rents. Tenants should be better protected from losing their home. Rental apartments should not be turned into condos. Until then, rents should not rise. Apartments should not be used as vacation rentals.

Protection against evictions for the owner's personal use is to last longer. Until the rent brake takes effect, the party demands a rent freeze that takes hardship cases among small landlords and nonprofit housing providers into account. A strict ban on misuse is meant to stop vacation rentals, other commercial use and speculative vacancy.

The Left wants to ban forced evictions and set up a state program against homelessness. Under the Housing First approach, homeless people would get an apartment as the first step. Young people would receive money from the state when moving into their first own home.

The Left wants to ban forced evictions. Nobody should lose their home and end up on the street. Homeless people should get an apartment first. The state should pay the first deposit for young people. They should also get 500 euros to start out.

Housing First projects are to be set up across the state. In allocating social housing, social, family and health criteria should count, and people who have long been homeless should get priority. Housing eligibility certificates are to be issued even to people with a negative credit record, rent debts or Bürgergeld (citizen's income). The state would cover the first deposit after leaving the parental home and pay 500 euros at the start of training, university or voluntary service. The party is open to a lower real estate transfer tax for young families.

The Left wants to found a state-owned housing construction company that develops land and helps municipalities build. A fund would pay off legacy debts of Saxon housing companies dating from East German times. According to the party, these debts hold back investment and can lead to privatization.

The Left wants to found a state housing company. It should buy land and help towns build homes. It should also rescue municipal housing companies in trouble. A fund should pay off old debts of these companies.

The company would develop state-owned land, buy more land and support municipalities in planning, building and renovating. It would buy struggling municipal housing companies or take a stake in them. The platform puts the legacy debts of municipal housing companies at about 445 million euros, so far repaid from rental income. Outside Dresden and Leipzig, the party wants to counter vacancy and decay with low-bureaucracy funding such as regional budgets, vacancy management and support for building cooperatives.

The Left wants a state program for energy retrofits of residential buildings that keeps rents stable. The requirements of the federal heating law are to be cushioned socially for tenants. Measures to adapt to heat and heavy rain are added.

The Left wants buildings to be renovated. They should use less energy. Rents should stay stable. District heating should become climate-friendly. The Left wants to ban gravel gardens.

District heating is to be produced without fossil fuels and its network expanded; the party wants to support tenant electricity models. Municipalities are to carry out binding heat and heating planning. Small towns would get greening and water retention programs, and new construction would follow sponge-city concepts. Gravel gardens would be banned. The Left also wants more funding for age-appropriate and barrier-free conversions and public support for housing for apprentices.

To address housing shortages and rising rents in big cities, the Left wants a rent cap, the socialization of real estate corporations and a state-owned housing construction company. That company would build social housing on a large scale.

Rents are high in big cities. The Left wants a firm limit on rents. Large housing companies should belong to the public. The state should set up its own housing company. It should build many low-cost homes.

The platform names students and people with low incomes as those hit hardest. The new state company is meant to create affordable housing on a large scale. Rather than letting cities keep growing outward, the party prefers developing city centers and nearby districts where possible. Shopping centers, commercial zones and housing estates on undeveloped land should no longer take priority.