SPD on housing

The SPD wants to found a state-owned housing company called BWohnen that builds affordable rental housing together with municipalities and keeps it permanently in state ownership. Housing subsidies are to be realigned so that the state matches federal funds one to one. The party regards housing as a basic public service.

The state should build homes itself again. The SPD wants to create a new company for this. It is called BWohnen and belongs to the state. The homes should be affordable and stay with the state. Dorms for apprentices and students should get funding too.

BWohnen is to develop land, carry out building projects and cooperate with municipal companies, cooperatives, building groups and private players, as well as advise and develop neighborhoods. Municipalities without their own housing company are to benefit in particular. Funding is to focus on affordable multi-story rental housing, with municipal and nonprofit-oriented developers at the center. A new nonprofit housing status is meant to keep homes affordable permanently. The SPD wants to support dorms for apprentices and students and company housing with grants and simpler procedures.

The SPD wants any city or district to be designated a tight housing market as soon as the local building authority finds that affordable housing is lacking. A state land fund would buy plots and pass them on to nonprofit-oriented developers. In the party's view, land belongs under public responsibility.

Cities should find it easier to say: we lack affordable homes. Then they get more powers. For example, they can buy land first. The state should buy land too. It then passes the land to builders of affordable homes.

The designation gives municipalities tools such as an expanded right of first refusal, building orders and a halt on converting rentals into condos, so vacant land can be used for social housing faster. The state land fund is to acquire and secure plots strategically and hand them to municipal and nonprofit-oriented developers to curb land prices. Living on farm premises and repurposing buildings are to be made easier. The SPD rejects the current property tax reform of the Green-CDU state government.

The SPD wants to extend the Mietpreisbremse (rent brake) and the ban on converting rentals to condos to more municipalities, and to cap inflation-indexed rents. Subsidized apartments would normally stay price-controlled for 30 years. The party's stated goal is that no one has to spend more than 30 percent of net income on rent.

The SPD wants stronger limits on rents. The rent brake should apply in more towns. It limits how high new rents can be. Subsidized homes should stay cheap for 30 years. No one should pay more than 30 percent of income for rent.

For rents tied to inflation, the SPD wants to push at federal and state level for a cap. With higher subsidies, the rent-control period would be 40 years. Cities above 50,000 residents would have to produce qualified rent indexes, and smaller municipalities with tight markets a standardized one. The announced rent initiative is meant to help families, single parents, seniors and people on low incomes in particular.

The SPD wants to tighten the ban on misusing housing for other purposes, raise fines and help municipalities set up vacancy registers. Where homes stay empty long-term with no prospect of use, municipalities would be able to start purchase or expropriation proceedings as a last resort.

Homes should not sit empty. The SPD wants higher fines for that. Owners may rent homes to guests for only five weeks a year. Today it is ten weeks. If a home stays empty very long, the city can take it over as a last step.

Short-term guest rentals without a permit would be halved from ten to five weeks a year. The SPD wants statewide support for public housing companies that bring vacant homes back into use following the Karlsruhe model. Owners of unused homes would have to contribute or make the space usable again. The planned state company BWohnen is to assist municipalities, and the state intends to create the legal basis early on.

The SPD wants to refund the real estate transfer tax to families buying their first home. A program called “Jung kauft Alt” (Young Buys Old) would also make it easier to buy and renovate old houses in rural areas. The party aims to promote home ownership and village development this way.

Families should find it easier to buy a home. On their first purchase they get a tax back. It is the tax on buying property. People who buy an old house in a village should get help. There will be grants and advice.

The refund is meant to be unbureaucratic and independent of when the application is filed. “Jung kauft Alt” targets young families, tradespeople and people starting a business. It provides grants, advice and simpler permits. The platform links this to village development, climate protection and fairness between generations.

Following Hamburg's example, the SPD wants to simplify building rules and technical standards enough to cut construction costs by up to a third. New housing should, where possible, come from adding stories and densifying, without sealing more land.

Building is expensive. The SPD wants fewer and simpler building rules. That should lower costs by up to one third. New homes should often go on top of existing buildings. That keeps more land open.

A statewide program is planned for adding stories to existing buildings and for serial densification. Standardized planning modules and type approvals, where a building type approved once can be built again without a new review, are meant to speed things up. The party sums this up as “up instead of out.” Digital planning processes are to be advanced and construction times shortened.

The SPD wants to promote sustainable building materials, make new public buildings climate-neutral and make energy retrofits the focus of state subsidies. The sponge city principle is to guide residential neighborhoods so that cities can cope with heavy rain, heat and drought.

The SPD wants building to harm the climate less. New buildings of the state and cities should be climate-neutral. Often they should be made of wood. Cities should store rainwater like a sponge. That helps in heat and heavy rain.

Wood, recycled materials and serial production are to be promoted; the state building code is to make carbon footprint, land efficiency and ecological standards binding for subsidies. Municipal neighborhood projects that modernize existing buildings and keep them affordable are strengthened, and hardship for individual condo owners is to be avoided. Rainwater is to seep away, be stored and be used for cooling on site, for example via green roofs and unsealed surfaces. A state funding program supports municipalities, and a revised building code is to make climate-resilient construction the rule.

The SPD wants a state action plan to end homelessness in Baden-Württemberg by 2030. A broad support system with specialist offices in every city and county is to be built. The "Housing First" approach, under which people get a home first, is to be expanded considerably.

The SPD wants no one to be homeless by 2030. The state should make a plan for this. Every county should have offices that help. Homeless people should get a home first. Shelters should be decent places.

Emergency housing assistance, for example to help people keep their current home, is to become a core part of social planning. Uniform minimum standards are to apply to shelters, combined with outreach support. There are to be enough services especially for homeless women, for people with mental illness or care needs, and for young adults. To that end, different areas of social law are to work together and joint funding models are to be created. The SPD also commits to creating more affordable housing.