SPD on housing

The SPD wants to give land owned by the Free State of Bavaria to municipalities and housing cooperatives so that affordable housing can be built there. It sets a target of 80,000 affordable homes per year.

The state of Bavaria owns land. The SPD wants to give this land to cities and towns. Housing cooperatives should get land too. 80,000 low-cost homes should be built there each year.

The state land is to go to cities, towns and Bavarian housing cooperatives. The target is 80,000 affordable homes each year. The platform accuses the state government of failures in housing construction and lists this among its core projects for a change of policy.

The SPD wants to enshrine a social land law and a public-interest approach to state property in the Bavarian constitution. The state would stop selling its own land and buildings and lease them out under long-term ground leases instead. A state land fund would help municipalities acquire land.

The SPD wants Bavaria to stop selling its land. The state should lease the land instead, mostly to towns and cities. A new land fund should help towns buy land. This is meant to create affordable homes.

The program argues that affordable housing cannot be built on expensive land. A new law would let the state hand out its plots under ground leases, preferably to municipalities, with the lease rate based on the proposed concept. Ground lease rules would be simplified. A state-owned social land fund would support municipalities in using their right of first refusal, in applying the "Soziale Bodennutzung (SoBoN)" model, and in buying key plots. At the federal level, the SPD backs a municipal right of first refusal that gives towns first access to land. It also wants to examine buying or buying back apartments, such as the former Landesbank apartments sold in 2012.

The SPD wants to introduce the Grundsteuer C (a property tax on undeveloped building plots) in Bavaria so that vacant, ready-to-build land is used for housing. It also wants to streamline the Bavarian building code and align it with the national model code to speed up construction of affordable homes.

The SPD wants a tax on empty building plots. Owners should then be more likely to build homes there. Building rules in Bavaria should become simpler. Building permits should be handled digitally. This is meant to make building faster.

Besides the tax on building land, the program relies on denser development, adding floors, and converting existing buildings; development inside towns should come before expansion outward. A statewide register of conversion potential is planned. At the federal level, the SPD wants to push for a new building class E for simple construction. Modular and serial construction and renovation would be sped up through type approvals. Procedures would be digitized, and municipalities would get support with digital zoning plans and building permits.

The SPD wants the construction sector to contribute to making Bavaria climate neutral by 2035. To that end, sustainable and reusable building materials would be promoted, and renovation would take priority over demolition and new construction.

The SPD wants building to harm the climate less. Bavaria should support wood and other sustainable building materials. Old buildings should be renovated rather than torn down. Used building materials should be passed on through exchanges.

The program wants to give more weight to the "gray energy" embedded in buildings and to CO2 emissions over a building's whole life cycle, and to support cradle-to-cradle approaches. Exchanges for building materials would be set up across the state so that materials can be reused. Funding for wood and other sustainable materials would assess a building's overall concept rather than its individual parts. The SPD supports municipal heat planning with local, neighborhood-level solutions. State programs would supplement federal energy-efficiency funding so that owners, tenants, and municipalities are not financially overburdened.

The SPD wants to support socially oriented housing construction with a billion euros of state money and stop cutting state funds whenever the federal government raises its own. Subsidized apartments would stay rent-restricted for 60 years. Cooperatives, municipal housing companies, and families buying a home would also receive support.

The SPD wants to spend more money on affordable homes. Bavaria should provide one billion euros for this. Subsidized homes should stay affordable for 60 years. Homes for trainees, students, and older people should also be built.

A pact for affordable housing would be concluded with municipalities and the socially oriented housing sector. State companies such as Imby, Bayernheim, and Stadibau would be reorganized to work together and give priority to social housing. Projects for seniors, students, and multigenerational living are planned, along with an Azubiwerk (a housing organization for trainees); exchange platforms would help older people and young families swap homes. Municipal housing companies, including at county level, would get help with their founding and receive state land at reduced prices. Cooperatives would get ground-lease plots, state guarantees, and advice centers. The SPD would top up the federal subsidy for owner-occupied homes for families with children and low to middle incomes.

The SPD wants no rent increases in state-owned apartments for one legislative term and will press the rest of the housing sector for a temporary rent moratorium. It also wants to ban the conversion of rental apartments into condominiums in tight markets and to act more firmly against the misuse of housing.

The SPD wants no rent increases in state-owned homes for five years. Other landlords should do the same for a while. In expensive areas, rental homes should not be turned into owned apartments. Towns should get better tools against vacation rentals.

The conversion ban would be issued by ordinance for buildings with three or more units in all areas with tight housing markets. The law against misuse of housing would give municipalities registration and disclosure requirements, including against commercial-style short-term rentals. Vacancies in state properties would be recorded annually and remedied, and housing inspectors would get stronger powers against overcrowding and run-down properties. Employer-provided housing for nurses and public employees would be promoted. At the federal level, the SPD wants to change the rent index by dropping the limited reference period and including subsidized apartments. Index-linked rents would follow net base rents instead of inflation.