Linke on housing

The Left wants to convert vacant buildings into housing and link housing policy with urban development funding. The platform justifies this with climate protection, lower land use, and reviving town centers. It also calls for more greenery in city centers, serial construction, and building with timber.

Many buildings stand empty. The Left wants to turn them into homes. This saves land and is good for the climate. City centers should get more trees and drinking fountains. The state should also support fast building with ready-made parts and building with wood.

Projects that bring vacant buildings back into use, such as the "LeerGut agents," are to be funded; dilapidated buildings are to be secured and renovated by municipalities, the state, or nonprofit providers. Urban development funds are to go to socially mixed residential neighborhoods and lively city centers. The platform calls for drinking fountain plans across the state as well as more green spaces and trees against heat in city centers. In larger cities, serial construction with prefabricated modules is meant to save time and money. Building with timber is to be made easier, which the party says also strengthens the state's forestry sector. So-called Gesellschaftshäuser, which combine housing with community spaces or shops, and age-appropriate forms of housing are to be supported.

The Left wants to push at the federal level for a new Wohngemeinnützigkeit (nonprofit housing status), meaning housing construction that is not profit-driven. Land is to stay in municipal hands or return to them, and land and planning law is to curb price speculation.

The Left wants to strengthen housing that is not built for profit. It wants a new federal law for this. Land should belong to the municipalities. Municipalities should be able to buy building land more easily. The state wants to spend more money on social housing.

The platform notes that nonprofit housing status was abolished in 1990 and announces that the party will lobby the federal government and other parties for a new law. To limit land prices, the party considers legally sound valuation procedures and changes to land and planning law necessary. Municipalities' right of first refusal is to be improved. Public-interest, cooperative, and municipal housing companies are to be eligible for exemption from the real estate transfer tax when they merge. The Left wants to keep co-financing EU and federal programs with state money and to secure more funds for social housing at both federal and state level.

The Left wants to set up a state-owned housing company that mainly builds new social housing. The platform argues that subsidies alone are no longer enough and that the market does not secure affordable housing. For large real estate corporations, the party wants to examine expropriation and socialization.

The state of Thuringia should build homes itself. The Left wants to found a state-owned company for this. By 2040 it should have 10,000 low-cost homes. The Left wants to examine expropriation of big housing companies. That means: the state takes over their homes and pays compensation.

The company is to receive 100 million euros in start-up capital and also use subsidized loans and market loans. It is to own about 1,500 homes by 2030, with 10,000 targeted by 2040. Using a right of first refusal, it is meant to prevent municipalities from selling off housing and to be able to bring purely speculative properties into public use. If large real estate corporations do not, in the party's view, use their property for the common good, expropriation and socialization are to be examined. The state wants to advise and fund municipalities that found or expand their own housing companies. Occupancy commitments in social housing are to be increased.

The Left wants a state law that lets municipalities ban the conversion of housing to other uses. According to the platform, Airbnb and vacation rentals in large cities and tourist regions drive up rents and shrink the supply of homes.

In some cities, many homes are rented out to tourists. The Left says this makes rents more expensive. Municipalities should be able to ban this. A state law is supposed to make that possible.

The platform sees the problem mainly in larger cities and tourist regions. There, it says, vacation apartments and rooms reduce the number of rental homes available. The municipalities themselves are to be able to impose the ban. A state-level rule is meant to allow for regional particularities and differing housing markets.

The Left wants to make Thuringia the first German state without homelessness. Building on the existing state strategy, it wants to test models that prevent homelessness altogether.

Some people have no home. The Left wants to end this completely in Thuringia. It wants to try out new ways of doing so. In the cities, street workers should be there to help.

The platform points to the state strategy against homelessness, which first links up measures at the municipal level. As the next step, it names testing models for preventing homelessness entirely. The party argues that people in crisis need a home first so they can seek further help. In addition, street outreach services are to be available, especially in cities.