SPD on housing

The SPD considers 100,000 new homes a year necessary in the state, including 25,000 with rent caps under social housing rules. It also plans a new funding pillar for non-profit-oriented housing construction. The goal is for renters to spend no more than 30 percent of disposable household income on rent.

Homes are scarce and expensive in many places. The SPD wants 100,000 new homes every year. 25,000 of them should be social housing. These are homes with limited rent. Nobody should pay more than 30 percent of income for rent.

The platform speaks of a housing shortage in big cities and increasingly in smaller towns. Because subsidized homes lose their rent caps after a set period, it says 25,000 new social housing units a year are needed to keep the stock stable. The additional funding pillar for housing serving the common good is meant to break this cycle and preserve rent restrictions. Tailored solutions are planned for dense cities and for sparsely populated regions, taking climate protection into account. The SPD also wants to support people in buying their own property.

The SPD wants to set up a state-owned housing construction company that builds for municipalities without their own housing company and buys existing homes. Municipal housing companies and cooperatives are to receive special support for founding and new construction. In the platform's view, such providers dampen local rent levels.

The state should set up its own housing company. It builds homes for cities without their own housing company. It also buys existing homes. This should keep rents affordable. City housing companies and cooperatives should get more support.

The state company would also step in where municipal companies cannot build fast enough, and it would develop large projects. Individual buildings can be passed on to local municipal or non-profit-oriented companies and cooperatives, or stay with it. Municipal companies and cooperatives are to get especially favorable terms in public housing subsidies. Companies with public ownership, including subsidiaries, are to apply collective wage agreements.

The SPD wants to digitize and shorten planning and permitting procedures so that more homes get built. Municipalities are to receive more money for staff in their building departments. Federal land in the state is to be used for rent-restricted housing.

Building often takes a long time. The SPD wants permits to be faster and digital. Cities should get more money for their building offices. Affordable homes should be built on land owned by the federal government.

The platform names well-equipped, digitally capable building departments as a precondition for fast construction. Stronger municipal finances are meant to ensure that building and planning offices have enough staff. Housing for students, trainees, singles, and families is to be built on federal land.

The SPD wants to bring vacant residential and commercial buildings back into use and help municipalities act against derelict properties. Buildings in need of renovation are to be modernized, especially with climate targets in mind. The "Innovation City" project in Bottrop is to serve as a statewide model.

Some buildings stand empty or fall apart. The SPD wants them to be used again. Cities should get help against run-down buildings. Old buildings should be renovated. This should also help the climate.

The tools named range from support for buying homes, such as "Jung kauft Alt" (young buyers for old houses), rent-to-own, and cooperatives, to demolition to upgrade a neighborhood. The SPD backs the federal government's plans to put the municipal right of first refusal on a legally sound footing soon. Modernization focuses on climate targets in the building sector.

The SPD wants to make North Rhine-Westphalia a "tenant protection state" by using all the leeway federal law allows. Tenant protection rules would apply in more municipalities, including a cap on rent increases, an ordinance on conversions, and a rent brake that is easier to apply.

The SPD wants to protect renters better. Rents should not rise so fast. The state would make new rules for this. These rules would apply in more cities and towns.

The program would make it easier to classify municipalities as tight housing markets so that the rent brake and similar tools can take effect. A cap ordinance (Kappungsgrenzenverordnung) would limit increases in existing leases. A reintroduced conversion ordinance would allow authorities to prohibit luxury renovations and the conversion of rental units into condominiums when the housing supply is at risk. A new tenant protection ordinance would be the basis for monitoring the rental market in all municipalities and stepping in where needed.

The SPD wants to put a time limit on short-term rentals of apartments, for example to tourists, and to revise the Wohnraumstärkungsgesetz (housing protection act) for that purpose. Public housing oversight would also play a larger role again in protecting tenants' rights.

Some apartments are rented out only for short stays to tourists. The SPD wants to limit how long this is allowed. A law would be changed for this. Cities should also be able to step in when tenants' rights are badly violated.

The Wohnraumstärkungsgesetz would be revised with close involvement of the municipalities. Authorities would be equipped so that they can check compliance. Municipalities would get the legal and financial means to take official action themselves in cases of serious violations of building codes and tenants' rights.

The SPD wants to enable more people to buy a home and to widen the support available for it. First-time buyers of a home they live in would have the real estate transfer tax offset through a state program, especially families with children. The program argues that property is also retirement provision and part of the social democratic promise of upward mobility.

The SPD wants more people to be able to buy their own home. There would be more support for this. For a first home, the state would make up for the tax on the purchase. This is meant to help families with children most.

The conditions for ownership support would be changed so that a larger group can use it, and the procedures would be simplified. Buying shares in a housing cooperative is also named as a route to ownership in tight markets. The NRW-Bank could provide additional help. The real estate transfer tax on a first owner-occupied home would be offset through a targeted state program.

The SPD wants to lower building costs through a land policy oriented toward the common good and to create a state land fund for this. The state would buy plots in trust for municipalities, make them ready for building, and hand them out for housing only on long-term leasehold at a low rate. State-owned land would go first to rent-controlled housing.

The SPD wants to set up a land fund. The state would use it to buy land for cities and towns. This land would not be sold. It would be leased cheaply. Affordable homes are supposed to be built there.

Income from the ground rent would flow back into the fund as repayment. According to the program, this keeps the land available for affordable housing in the long run and lowers costs for common-good housing construction. Allocation is tied to a new non-profit housing status. Those who build rent-controlled housing would have the real estate transfer tax refunded through a state program. The fund is also meant to help municipalities finance their need for residential land.

The SPD wants to let municipalities levy a Grundsteuer C, a property tax on undeveloped plots, to curb land speculation and bring building land onto the market. It also wants to use the options of the federal Baulandmobilisierungsgesetz (building land mobilization act) in North Rhine-Westphalia and help financially weak municipalities in particular develop building areas themselves.

Some owners leave land empty and wait for higher prices. The SPD wants to make this harder. Cities and towns would be allowed to charge a special tax on empty plots. Poor towns would get help so they can develop building land themselves.

The tools named in the program include building orders, easier attic conversions, municipal rights of first refusal, and concept-based allocation of plots. Building land could also be developed on the condition that at least part of it is sold to the municipality. Municipal plots should not go only to the highest bidder despite tight budgets but be made usable for rent-controlled housing. The state wants to help municipalities analyze their housing and land needs. New residential land should come first from densification and brownfield sites before open land is built on.

The SPD wants a large program that favors converting and renovating existing buildings over new construction. The reasoning given is that a house does its greatest climate damage when it is built and that conversion often saves resources. Energy retrofits, modernization, and age-appropriate conversion would receive more funding.

The SPD would rather convert old houses than build new ones. The SPD says this is better for the climate and saves money. The state would give more support for conversion and renovation. Changes that help older people would also get more money.

The building stock in neighborhoods, towns, and villages would be kept and modernized. The SPD wants to prevent town centers from emptying out while new building happens at the edge, which the program calls the donut effect. Projects such as "Jung kauft Alt" (young buys old) would continue and be expanded. Accessibility in conversions would get more support so that people can stay where they live as they age. The program also mentions better transport links between cities and surrounding areas and good mobile and internet coverage for working from home in rural areas.

The SPD wants a "Masterplan Innenstadt" (downtown master plan) to revive town centers with a mix of retail, work, housing, culture, crafts, and restaurants. It also plans a state program for 1,000 playgrounds, with children and young people involved in carrying it out.

The SPD wants to make town centers lively again. There should be shops, jobs, homes, culture, and restaurants. The state would also fund 1,000 playgrounds. Children and young people would have a say.

According to the program, municipalities are to become the shaping force of downtown policy. The plan includes accessible public spaces along with accessible public restrooms. So that more people can live in the centers again, the state's urban development funding and building law would be adjusted. The program points to the COVID period as having exposed the crisis of town centers. The state would also support municipalities with integrated settlement concepts built around short distances.

The SPD wants to address homelessness through the "Housing First" approach. Homeless people would first get a home of their own, without having to accept support services in return.

The SPD wants to help people who have no home. These people should get their own home first. They do not have to accept help to get it. They decide for themselves what help they want.

The platform starts from the idea that everyone has a right to a home of their own. Getting a home should not depend on whether a person accepts support services. Counseling and support are to follow each person's individual needs. Those affected should be able to choose the help they need themselves.