SPD on housing

The SPD wants to rebuild a state-owned housing company that may not be sold. It is to expand the stock of affordable housing step by step because, in the party's view, the market is failing.

The SPD wants to set up a housing company owned by the state. It should build affordable homes. The company may not be sold. The goal is 40,000 state-owned homes.

The state is to be able to buy land, build housing and manage it permanently in public ownership. The 40,000 state-owned apartments are to be built in areas with tight housing markets. The party wants to involve existing institutions and players. The company could also convert vacated office space in cities into housing, for example for inclusive housing projects. The program describes the plan as a long-term task.

The SPD wants to expand social housing construction, which in its view is progressing too slowly. Subsidies, social housing quotas in new development areas and a new nonprofit housing status are meant to help.

The SPD wants many more social housing units. These are homes with low rent. There should be 100,000 more. The state will provide funding for this.

The state is to keep providing funds for social housing and for renovating existing buildings. Municipalities that reserve at least 25 percent of new development areas for subsidized housing will get extra money. They are also to be supported in requiring investors, through zoning and urban development contracts, to build a share of social housing. The party backs federal plans for a new nonprofit housing status and the founding of nonprofit housing companies. Funding is also to take four- and five-room apartments for families into account.

The SPD wants to fully apply the federal Mietpreisbremse (rent brake) and the federal building land mobilization act in the state, to protect tenants better and gain more building land. A planning drive is also to create housing for students and trainees.

The SPD wants to protect renters better. The rent brake should apply strictly in the state. It limits how high new rents can be. More housing should be created for students and trainees.

Implementation of both federal rules is to be reviewed regularly and adjusted where needed. For housing for young people, municipal registers of potential building sites are to serve as a basis. The party sees the federal laws as important foundations for tenant protection, especially in metropolitan areas.

The SPD wants neighborhoods to be more mixed socially and by age, and will support new forms of housing for this. Neighborhood work is to get permanent funding, and collective ownership models are to be subsidized.

The SPD wants rich and poor, young and old, to live side by side. It will support new ways of living for this. Neighborhood work should get steady funding. People with little money should also be able to own a home.

Models such as cooperatives, the Mietshäusersyndikat (a tenement syndicate) and associations are to be included in funding programs. Municipalities are to learn more about how zoning plans can set shares for different income groups. The party wants to develop modular construction projects and make them available to municipalities. Housing and shared apartments suited to older people and people needing care, especially in rural areas and for people with dementia, will continue to be funded. Neighborhood work in disadvantaged areas is to move from project grants to steady funding; skilled trades are to be included in neighborhood plans.