SPD on housing

The SPD wants to create a total of 100,000 new homes between 2026 and 2031 and at least 230,000 by 2040. A public housing construction program is meant to ensure that more than half of new homes are built by state-owned, cooperative, and other public-interest companies.

The SPD wants 100,000 new homes in Berlin by 2031. More than half should be built by companies that serve the public good. These include the state's own housing companies. The state will give these companies more money.

The public housing construction program is to supplement existing subsidies and reach an average of 10,000 homes a year. State-owned companies are to be able to build up capacity, and the SPD wants to gradually strengthen their equity. Many homes are to be built in the 24 new urban districts, where state-owned land is to be made available faster and connected to transport in good time. When buying housing, the state is to prioritize climate-friendly new buildings and purchase older stock only selectively in neighborhoods with a low municipal share. Accessible and affordable housing is to be created specifically for single parents, people with disabilities, and shared apartments, among others.

The SPD wants to further develop funding for housing cooperatives and make it the second pillar of the public housing construction program. State-owned land is to be made available to cooperatives and other public-interest developers, mainly through long-term ground leases.

The SPD wants to give more support to housing cooperatives. The state will give them land to build on. Usually the state keeps the land. The cooperative may use it for a long time. This is called a ground lease.

Suitable state-owned sites are to be identified and provided for cooperative housing. Ground leases (Erbbaurecht) are to be treated as equivalent to ownership in funding and valuation practice. The condition is that the homes are held permanently and managed on social terms.

The SPD wants to raise the social housing quota under the cooperative building land model from 30 to 50 percent. In the future, the model is also to apply to projects without a development plan when developers need exemptions from building law.

Today, 30 percent of homes in large new building projects must be social housing. The SPD wants 50 percent. The rule should apply to more building projects. The districts should check that the homes are really rented out this way.

The cooperative building land model requires private developers to include a share of social housing in projects with a development plan. Under the so-called Neukölln model, affordable and accessible housing is to be mandatory in exemption agreements. The SPD also wants to improve monitoring and, together with the districts, make sure that promised social housing units are actually rented out.

The SPD wants to speed up and lower the cost of construction and permitting in order to reduce the shortage of affordable housing. Simpler building standards, modular construction, and digitalized building authorities are meant to contribute to this.

The SPD wants building to be faster and cheaper. Development plans should be finished in two years. Building offices should work more with computers and AI. There should be simpler building rules.

The Einfach-Bauen-Gesetz (simple building act) is to be implemented and developed further as needed. Projects using modular construction and the "Gebäudetyp E" standard, which allows simpler construction methods, are to be promoted more. The SPD sets a two-year target for development plans and wants to use the "Bau-Turbo" (construction turbo). Building authorities are to work with AI-supported digitalization. At the same time, the platform stresses durable, renewable, and regional materials and energy-efficient buildings, and says there should be no social trade-offs.

The SPD wants to make greater use of vacant lots, brownfields, empty offices, and low-rise properties for housing. Owners who do not build on ready-to-build land are to be pushed to build or sell through a Grundsteuer C (a property tax on undeveloped building land) and building orders.

Some plots are empty even though building is allowed there. The SPD wants to introduce a special tax for them. It also wants to require owners to build. Empty offices should become homes. Homes could be built on top of low supermarkets.

Land that is already sealed is to take priority, which also serves the goal of net-zero new land sealing. Together with the investment bank IBB, a funding program is to support converting empty office buildings into housing, tied to rent controls. In a pilot project, the area of the former A 104 highway at Schlangenbader Straße and the Breitenbachplatz square is to be redesigned. Building orders are to oblige owners to build within a reasonable time; otherwise they are to sell at a fair price in individual cases, with municipal housing companies able to buy. Empty shopping centers and retail rows are to be opened for youth, cultural, sports, and social uses, and temporary uses made easier.

The SPD wants to create up to 12,000 homes at the former Tegel airport with state-owned companies and cooperatives. Tempelhofer Feld is to keep its current function; the party rejects building along its edges as long as other land in Berlin remains unused.

Tegel used to be an airport. The SPD wants to build up to 12,000 homes there. Tempelhofer Feld should stay open. No homes should be built on the edge of the field for now. But there will be building next to the old airport building.

In Tegel, housing construction is to move ahead quickly alongside the business and science site, and in a second phase on adjacent areas as well. The Zentraler Festplatz fairground is being considered as a possible site for a new district, with the showmen to be offered an alternative site. To improve the quality of the space on Tempelhofer Feld, the SPD wants to initiate legal changes. Around the airport building, state-owned and cooperative housing is to be built without touching the field. The building itself is to be opened for a variety of uses.

The SPD wants to expand the existing rent review office into a rent supervisory authority that advises, investigates, and imposes penalties. Rent gouging is also to be pursued by a specialized department at the public prosecutor's office.

The SPD wants a new authority for rents. It will check and punish rents that are too high. Tenants can report high rents with an app. Prosecutors should also do more against rent gouging. Rent gouging means the rent is far too high.

The rent supervisory authority is to get its own investigation unit and work closely with the Berlin public prosecutor's office. The districts' tenant advice services are to become regional contact points under its umbrella. A rent-check app is to make reporting easier, and people registering an address are to be informed about the rent brake, rent gouging, and neighborhood preservation rules; the SPD wants to expand neighborhood preservation areas. Rent gouging is to be punished with substantial fines and prison sentences. At the federal level, the SPD backs specialized court panels; eviction cases are to be heard orally.

The SPD wants to commit the state-owned housing companies more firmly to exemplary rental practices and to limit rent increases there. The cap of 27 percent of household income is in the future to be based on gross rent excluding heating rather than on net rent.

The state of Berlin owns housing companies. Rents there should rise less. Tenants should pay at most 27 percent of their income for rent. In the future, running costs should count too. Homes should be given out without discrimination.

Transparency rules are to apply to rent increases and utility bills. The ombudsman's office is to become an arbitration body, with local contact persons and reliable office hours. The SPD wants to expand the state program for large housing estates and link it with neighborhood management. To ensure non-discriminatory allocation, anonymized application procedures, binding standards, and systematic testing are to be introduced or expanded.

The SPD wants to make better use of existing housing by making home swaps and moves to smaller apartments easier. A matching program is to bring together older people with spare rooms and young people who pay less rent in return for help with daily life.

Some older people have a spare room. Young people should be able to move in. They help with daily life and pay less rent. People who move to a smaller home should not pay more per square meter. Single parents should be entitled to more rooms.

In state-owned housing, tenants moving to a smaller apartment are, for example, to keep their previous price per square meter. A swap exchange is to include state-owned and private housing companies. According to the SPD, the "Wohnen für Hilfe" (housing for help) program is meant to enable affordable housing and prevent loneliness. Eligibility for a Wohnberechtigungsschein (certificate for subsidized housing) is to be expanded so that single parents with a child are treated like couples with a child and can each claim their own room plus a shared room.

The SPD wants to tighten the ban on misusing residential space and thereby return vacation rentals to the rental market. A new housing protection task force at the Senate is to support the districts with enforcement; construction of micro-apartments is also to be more tightly managed.

Many homes are used as vacation rentals. The SPD wants to restrict this more. A new unit at the Senate will help the districts with checks. Very small apartments should also be built less often.

Secondary and second homes are to be allowed as vacation rentals on fewer days per year. Listings without registration on platforms are to be stopped, as are short-term rentals of hotel-style furnished rooms and overcrowding. The task force is to pool enforcement, speed up proceedings, and help track down illegal offers. Micro-apartments are to be restricted through development plans by means of minimum sizes or a cap on the number of units per building, including when existing homes are converted. Special housing for students, seniors, and other target groups remains exempt.

The SPD wants to prioritize preserving housing over demolition and act faster against neglected buildings. It also plans a rent and housing register, a duty to report vacancies, and a progressive vacancy tax.

The SPD wants fewer buildings to be torn down. Landlords should keep their buildings in good condition. Otherwise the district steps in, and the owner pays. Owners who leave homes empty for a long time should pay a tax. A register will show who owns homes.

Demolitions are to be significantly restricted and the range of fines increased. A state fund for substitute measures is to let districts fix unacceptable living conditions, bill owners for the costs, and seize property if they fail to pay. Under an amendment to the Wohnraumsicherungsgesetz (housing protection act), owners with at least 50 units would have to build up a maintenance reserve and rent a fixed share to households holding a certificate for subsidized housing. The register is to disclose ownership, record vacancies, broaden the data base for the local reference rent, and automatically check rent levels for new leases and increases.

The SPD wants to create a new social housing framework that substantially expands the public-interest housing market. One goal is a legally sound rent cap, either through an opening clause in federal law or based on Article 15 of the Basic Law.

The SPD wants a rent cap for Berlin. That is a fixed upper limit for rents. Berlin needs permission in federal law for this. Or Berlin uses Article 15 of the constitution. This article allows property to be turned into public ownership.

The SPD wants to use every legal option for this, explicitly including those in the constitution. Article 15 of the Basic Law allows land to be transferred into public ownership. The platform points to the approval of the referendum "Deutsche Wohnen und Co. Enteignen" and reads it as a sign that a majority rejects the business conduct of large, especially publicly listed, housing companies.

The SPD wants to push at the federal level for stricter tenancy law. This includes a permanent rent brake without exceptions, a ban on index-linked rents, and a lower cap on rent increases.

The SPD wants stricter rent rules across Germany. The rent brake should apply forever. Rents should rise by no more than six percent in three years. Index-linked rents should be banned. These are rents that rise along with prices.

The rent brake is also to apply to furnished short-term rentals. The ban on converting rental apartments into condominiums is to be made permanent. The modernization surcharge is to be lowered and to apply only until the costs are covered. Evictions for the owner's personal use are to be limited to the immediate family, and abuse is to be ruled out. Landlords would no longer be allowed to pass the property tax on to tenants.

The SPD wants to press the federal government for a social tenancy law for commercial premises, the return of the municipal right of first refusal in protected neighborhoods, and a stricter ban on excessive rents. Owner-occupied housing is to receive targeted support, while Berlin is to remain a city of renters.

The SPD wants to protect renters better. Districts should again be able to buy buildings first in protected neighborhoods. Very high rents should be easier to ban. Shops and small businesses should also get better rent protection. Families with little money get help to buy their own home.

The SPD wants the federal government to create a social tenancy law for commercial space. The municipal right of first refusal in Milieuschutz areas (neighborhoods with protection against displacement) is to apply again. Commercial criminal law is to be changed so that excessive rents are already banned when housing is scarce. Support for owner-occupied housing is aimed mainly at low-income families in private new-build areas and at tenants whose apartment is being converted into a condominium.