What do the parties in Bremen say on housing?

The BIW wants new housing built mainly on already developed land within the cities while preserving green spaces as far as possible. Lower building standards are meant to make affordable housing more attractive for private investors.

The BIW wants more homes in Bremen and Bremerhaven. Building should happen mostly where there are already buildings. New high-rises are possible too. Building rules should be simpler. Then building costs less. Green spaces in the city should stay.

The CDU wants to create more housing in Bremen's city center and use the city-owned companies GEWOBA, BREBAU, and BREPARK to do so. A subsidy program would support converting offices into apartments. In the party's view, the city center becomes attractive through people who also live there.

The CDU wants more people to live in Bremen's city center. City-owned companies should build or buy apartments for this. Offices should become apartments. There should be funding for that. Parking garages should also offer space for bikes and charging points.

The CDU wants Bremen to build upward more and calls this architectural courage. In suitable locations, buildings should be allowed to rise above the cathedral.

The CDU wants to allow taller buildings in Bremen. In some places, buildings may then be taller than the cathedral. The party also wants special buildings along the Weser river.

The CDU wants to complete 10,000 apartments and houses within four years to keep housing affordable. The municipal companies BREBAU, GEWOBA, and STÄWOG are to play a larger role, since private investors are said to be holding back because of rising costs.

The CDU wants to build 10,000 apartments and houses in four years. Then there are more homes, and housing stays affordable. The city's housing companies should build many of them. A fixed share of social housing should remain.

The CDU wants to make it easier to designate building land and to speed up planning procedures. In Bremen-Nord, vacant and build-ready sites are to be made available much faster, because the platform sees a lot of potential there for new construction and owner-occupied homes.

The CDU wants building in Bremen to go faster. Planning should take less time. Bremen-Nord still has a lot of unused land. This land should become building land more quickly. The building office there should get more staff.

The CDU wants to make it easier to build on unused parts of large lots and to revise zoning plans for that purpose. The vacant-lot register is to list only sites that are actually for sale. The aim is to create new housing and use existing infrastructure.

Some houses stand on very large lots. The CDU wants to allow a second house on such lots. Building plans should be changed for this. There is a list of empty building sites. This list should get better.

The CDU wants to use the two public housing companies GEWOBA and BREBAU more actively for housing construction. GEWOBA is to keep its profits and build, renovate and buy more. BREBAU is to focus on housing construction and offer homes that are as affordable as possible.

Bremen owns two housing companies. They are called GEWOBA and BREBAU. The CDU wants both to build more homes. GEWOBA should keep its profits. It should use the money to build, renovate and buy homes.

The CDU wants to find and offer sites for tiny houses in Bremen. These small, partly mobile homes are to be open to everyone, such as students, trainees, families and seniors. Flat roofs and water areas are also to be considered.

Tiny houses are very small homes. Some of them can be moved. The CDU wants to find places for such homes in Bremen. Flat roofs should also be used. Living on the water should also be possible.

The CDU wants public buildings and municipal housing companies to exceed the legal minimum requirements and wants to draw up a renovation roadmap. Private owners are to be encouraged through incentives to renovate step by step without being overburdened.

Public buildings should use less energy than the law demands. This also applies to the city's housing companies. Private owners should get help to renovate their homes. The CDU does not want to ask too much of them.

The CDU wants to turn publicly owned housing companies into urban developers. They are to be allowed to make profits but must reinvest them for designated purposes. The background, in the program's view, is the slow growth in social housing.

Bremen owns housing companies. The CDU wants to give them more tasks. They should develop whole neighborhoods. They may make a profit. But they must invest the profit again. There should be more low-cost social housing.

The CDU wants to cut the processing time for Wohngeld (housing benefit) applications from several months today to no more than four weeks from 2024. To do so, the housing benefit office is to get more staff, and applications are to be possible online.

People who apply for housing benefit in Bremen wait many months. The CDU wants to change that. From 2024, an application should take four weeks at most. For this, there should be more staff and online applications.

The CDU wants to digitize building application and permit procedures in 2023 and introduce an electronic building file. Building applications are generally to be decided within four weeks.

Anyone who wants to build needs a permit from the authorities. The CDU wants to make this process fully digital. There should be a building office on the internet. The office should usually decide within four weeks.

The FDP wants to create new housing in downtown Bremen, mainly by building upward. Permits are to be faster, commercial space easier to convert into apartments, and a high-rise plan is to define where tall buildings are allowed.

More people should be able to live in downtown Bremen. The FDP wants to build higher for this. Attics should become apartments more easily. Offices and shops should also be turned into apartments. Permits should be faster.

The FDP wants a new waterfront district to emerge in Bremerhaven's northern Fischereihafen over two decades. Investors are to get as much freedom as possible, and the district is to be sustainable and climate-positive.

A new district by the water should be built in Bremerhaven. It is called Werftquartier. Companies that build there should be able to decide a lot themselves. The district should be good for the climate. One housing area should have no cars.

The FDP wants to designate more building areas quickly, for apartment buildings as well as for single-family and two-family homes. In the platform's view, more land and taller buildings will help against scarce housing and rising rents.

The FDP wants new land for building, and fast. Apartments should be built there. Houses for one or two families should be built there too. The FDP says: More homes make housing cheaper.

The FDP wants to abolish the rule that at least 30 percent of units in new building projects must be social housing. Instead of subsidizing apartments, it wants to support people directly, for example through Wohngeld (housing benefit).

Today there is a rule for new building projects. 30 percent of the homes must be social housing. The FDP wants to drop this rule. It wants to give money to people directly instead. One way is Wohngeld, a housing benefit.

The FDP wants to introduce an allowance of up to 500,000 euros on the real estate transfer tax for a first owner-occupied home. In addition, municipal housing companies are to offer rent-to-own models, and the property tax is to fall to the level of the surrounding region.

People who buy a home pay a tax. The FDP wants to drop this tax for a first home of your own. This should apply up to a price of 500,000 euros. Renters should be able to buy their home step by step. This is called rent-to-own.

The FDP wants to review building rules, remove those it sees as unnecessary and lower ancillary costs. It regards the state government's "Bremer Standard" for new building areas as excessive in many respects and calls for technology neutrality in heat generation.

The FDP wants fewer rules for building. This should make building cheaper. Bremen has its own rules for new building areas. They are called the Bremer Standard. The FDP thinks these rules are too strict.

The FDP rejects state intervention in the rental market such as the Mietpreisbremse (rent brake) and a rent cap, as well as expropriations in housing. Instead, more should be built, which in its view will lower rents and prices in the long run.

The FDP does not want state limits on rents. It does not want expropriations either. Expropriation means: The state takes homes away from their owners. The FDP wants to build more homes instead. Then rents will fall, it says.

The FDP calls for Bremen to quickly get a qualified Mietspiegel (rent index), meaning a recognized overview of customary local rents. This is meant to make the market more transparent and strengthen competition.

The FDP wants a rent index for Bremen. A rent index is a list. It shows what rents are usual in the city. This makes it easier to compare rents.

The FDP wants to make building more dorms for students and trainees more attractive and to promote investment in them. According to the platform, too little affordable housing worsens the shortage of skilled workers in the long run.

Students and trainees need cheap homes. Often they cannot find any. The FDP wants more dorms for them. Building them should pay off more. Old dorms should be renovated.

The FDP wants to make building permits faster, simpler and digital. If the authority does not respond to a complete application within a set period, preferably three months, the application is to count as approved.

The FDP wants faster building permits. People should be able to apply online. The office should answer within three months. If it does not answer, the application counts as approved. Then building can start.

The FDP wants to promote housing and care arrangements that let older people live independently with the support they need. It sees these as an alternative to nursing homes that costs less and relieves relatives and long-term care insurers.

Many old people want to stay in their own home for a long time. The FDP wants to support new ways of living for them. These include shared apartments for seniors and houses for several generations. Assisted living should also get support. The FDP says this is cheaper than a nursing home.

The Greens want to give stronger support to energy-efficiency renovations through construction guidance and subsidies. People receiving Wohngeld (housing benefit) are to get a climate bonus. Municipal heat planning is meant to provide more certainty when choosing climate-friendly heating systems.

Many poor people live in badly insulated homes. The Greens want to help more with renovations. There should be advice and money for this. People who get housing benefit should get a climate bonus. The cities should plan how homes will be heated in the future.

The Greens want to secure and create affordable housing, especially for people on low incomes, young families and single parents. The share of subsidized housing is to rise beyond the current 30 percent in new construction projects. In the party's view, housing should not be left to the market alone.

The Greens want more affordable homes. They are mainly for people with little money. Young families and single parents should get them too. There should be more social housing. These are homes the state supports so that rent stays low.

The Greens want to continue the state programs for disadvantaged neighborhoods and extend them to additional areas. Funding for climate protection projects in neighborhoods is also to continue beyond the current period. Programs for older people in their neighborhoods are meant to help avoid moves into care homes.

Bremen supports neighborhoods that are worse off. The Greens want to keep this support going. More areas should get money. Climate projects in neighborhoods should also keep getting money. Older people should be able to stay in their homes for a long time.

The Greens want to add staff to the Wohngeld (housing benefit) office and restructure it so that applications are processed faster. The background is the housing benefit reform, which makes considerably more people eligible. The benefit is also to be better publicized, and applying is to become simpler and possible online.

Housing benefit is money from the state to help pay rent. The Greens want more staff in the housing benefit office. Then people get their money faster. Many people do not know they can get this money. So there should be more information. Applying should be easier and possible online.

The Greens want homelessness in Bremen to end by 2030. Instead of basic hotels or shared shelters, everyone is to live in a home of their own. To achieve this, the "Housing First" pilot project is to become a permanent service.

The Greens want this: by 2030, no one in Bremen should be without a home. Every person should get a home of their own. The home comes first, then more help follows. This approach is called Housing First.

The Greens want a binding quota of 30 percent social housing in larger new construction projects. By the end of 2023, Bremen is to have 8,000 social housing units. Building groups and housing cooperatives are to receive more support.

The Greens want more social housing. In large new buildings, 30 percent should be social housing. There should be 8,000 such homes by the end of 2023. Groups that build together should get more help.

The Greens want to create an urban development company that secures land for affordable housing and inner-city commercial space. The city is to own more land and buildings and, as a rule, hand out its own plots only under Erbbaurecht (long-term ground leases).

The Greens want a city-owned company for urban development. It should secure land for affordable homes. The city should buy more land. It should no longer sell its own land but only lease it for a long time.

The Greens want to further develop the Bremer Standard for climate-friendly new buildings and launch a state program for climate-friendly construction. Because building uses a lot of energy and seals land, conversion, renovation and recycling of building materials are to complement new construction.

The Greens want building to harm the climate less. New houses should meet high energy rules. There should be less concrete and steel. Converting buildings should come before building new ones.

The Greens want a funding program to make it easier to split large apartments and convert single-family houses into multi-unit buildings. The Wohnraumschutzgesetz (housing protection law) is to be changed so that vacant homes are quickly put back into use.

The Greens want new homes in existing buildings. It should be easier to split large apartments. There should be funding for this. Empty homes should be lived in again quickly.

The Greens want city-owned housing companies to halt, for now, rent increases, energy cutoffs, terminations and evictions over unpaid bills. At the federal level they want the states to be allowed to introduce a rent moratorium.

The Greens want to protect tenants during the energy crisis. City-owned housing companies should not raise rents for now. They should not end leases over unpaid bills. The federal government should also let the states freeze rents.

The Greens want a state program to give Baugemeinschaften (groups of private households building together) a place in future neighborhood developments, including in Bremerhaven. Funding for nonprofit-oriented building groups and housing cooperatives would grow, and both would get land more cheaply.

The Greens want to support building groups. These are groups of people who build a house together. Housing cooperatives should also get more help. Both should get land at a fixed, low price.

The Greens want to counter the trend toward more living space per person and make better use of existing housing. Funding, advice and a swap exchange would make it easier to move into smaller homes; the program justifies this with Bremen's climate targets.

Many people live in more and more space. The Greens want to change that. People who move to a smaller home should get money and advice. A swap exchange should help people trade homes. This should also help the climate.

The Greens want to add a trustee rule to Bremen's Housing Protection Act. Properties that stand empty for a long time could be handed to a trustee who renovates and rents them out and later returns them to the owners.

Some houses stand empty for a long time. The Greens want to change that. A trustee should be able to take over such houses. A trustee manages a house for its owners. The trustee repairs it and rents it out. Then the owners get the house back.

The Left wants Wohngeld (housing allowance) to be paid out faster and to reach more people. To that end, the housing allowance office is to get far more staff, applications are to be simplified, and income limits raised further.

Wohngeld helps people pay rent. Many do not know they can get it. The Left wants more staff at the office. Applications should become easier. More people should be able to get Wohngeld.

The Left wants to end homelessness by 2030 and make Housing First the standard approach. Under this approach, homeless people first get their own apartment along with support from social workers.

By 2030, no one should be without a home. Homeless people should first get their own apartment. They also get help from social workers. There should be separate shelters for women. No one should be evicted onto the street.

The Left wants to grant public renovation subsidies only if rent including heating does not rise and social housing commitments continue. Overall, subsidies are to be geared toward people with low incomes. Free advice and an information campaign are to be added.

Houses should be renovated. Rent including heating should not go up because of that. Only then should the state give subsidies. People with little money should get more help.

The Left wants to stop selling public land and only grant it under long-term ground leases. Buildings and land are to move into public or common-good ownership wherever possible, for example through rights of first refusal. Against vacancy, orders to use buildings as housing and, if necessary, trustee administration are to be applied.

The city should no longer sell its land. It should only lease it for a long time. The city should also buy more buildings and land. Empty buildings should be lived in again.

The Left wants socially and functionally mixed neighborhoods where daily needs can be reached within ten minutes on foot. Disadvantaged neighborhoods are to be supported and displacement prevented through neighborhood protection ordinances. By 2025, there are to be 100 public drinking fountains.

The Left wants mixed neighborhoods. Homes, shops, doctors and culture are close together there. Everything important should be within a 10-minute walk. Poor neighborhoods should get more support.

The Left wants to develop downtown Bremen into a district where people of all income levels live and work. To do so, the city is to keep or buy land and buildings and build through its own housing companies.

The Left wants to change downtown Bremen. More people should live and work there. Homes should be affordable. The city should keep or buy land and buildings for this.

The Left wants to keep rents and land prices from soaring in well-connected neighborhoods and residents from being pushed out. It plans to use neighborhood preservation statutes, conversion bans, and the city's right of first refusal.

Some neighborhoods are very popular. Rents rise fast there. The Left wants to protect renters. The city should set strict rules and buy buildings itself.

The Left wants to raise the share of municipal and cooperative rental housing considerably, ideally to half of all rental units. In its view, a large public-interest sector holds rents down, as the example of Vienna shows.

The Left wants more homes owned by the city and by cooperatives. Ideally this should be every second rental home. Then rents stay lower, the party says. The city should buy homes for this.

The Left wants half of all newly built apartments to be social housing and rejects exceptions to this quota. New social housing units are generally to be acquired by the municipal housing companies.

The Left wants more social housing. Every second new apartment should be social housing. There should be no exceptions. The city's companies should buy these apartments.

The Left wants to use all available tools to limit rents charged by private landlords and to strengthen housing oversight. The ban on leaving housing vacant is to cover more buildings.

The Left wants to limit rents from private landlords. Today's limits should stay. An office should check on housing more closely. Empty buildings should not be allowed to stay empty.

Wherever new building rights are created, urban development contracts are to follow a uniform "Bremen Standard." It is to give social and urban design requirements equal weight alongside ecological ones.

New building projects should follow fixed rules. The Left calls them the Bremen Standard. They cover the environment and social needs. For example: lots of social housing and no high-rises.

The Left wants to buy out GEWOBA's private co-owners and convert the company into a GmbH (limited liability company). GEWOBA and BREBAU are to follow a rent strategy that holds prices down.

GEWOBA is a large housing company. The city owns only part of it. The Left wants the city to own all of it. Rents there should hardly rise.

The Left wants to push listed housing corporations such as Vonovia back out of Bremen's housing market and socialize profit-oriented real estate corporations in the state. It refers to Berlin's referendum "Deutsche Wohnen und Co. enteignen" (expropriate Deutsche Wohnen and Co.).

Big companies own many homes in Bremen. They want to make a profit from them. The Left wants to move these homes into public ownership. This is called socialization.

The Left wants the city to stop selling its land where possible and grant long-term ground leases instead, and to set up a municipal land fund. Public-interest users are to get land below market value.

The city should stop selling its land. It should only lease it out for a long time. A city fund should buy and manage land. Social projects should get land more cheaply.

The Left wants to keep the existing grant for families with children who buy a house or apartment. It is to be made accessible especially to single parents.

Families with children get money from the city when they buy a home. This applies only up to a certain purchase price. The Left wants to keep it that way. Single parents in particular should be able to get the money.

The Left wants the state to fund the Studierendenwerk (student services organization) much more generously to prevent higher cafeteria prices and dorm rents. In addition, 1,000 extra reduced-price dorm places are to be created.

The student services body runs cafeterias and dorms. The Left wants to give it more money. Food and rents should not get more expensive. There should be 1,000 new low-cost dorm places.

The Left wants to stop selling public land in Bremen-Nord, lease it at most, and buy additional sites. Nonprofit housing companies are to build affordable apartments there.

The city should stop selling land in Bremen-Nord. It should only lease land. It should also buy more buildings and plots. Low-cost apartments should be built there.

The SPD wants more apartments in downtown Bremen, especially on the upper floors of buildings. Housing is to play a larger role there than before and bring life to the center in the evenings and on Sundays. A share of 30 percent is to be built as subsidized housing.

More people should live in downtown Bremen. The apartments should mainly be on the upper floors. 30 out of 100 new apartments should be low-cost. That way the city is lively in the evening and on Sundays too.

The SPD wants everyone to have barrier-free access in their own neighborhood to what they need day to day. This guiding idea of the 10-minute city is to be written into all municipal planning in Bremen and Bremerhaven.

The SPD wants a 10-minute city. This means everything important is close to home. Examples are shops, doctors, daycare and bus stops. The cities should keep this in mind in all their planning.

The SPD wants to give existing urban renewal programs permanent funding and staff and to appoint district developers. Residents are to be involved early, and neighborhoods are to combine housing, work and green space.

The SPD wants to develop city districts better. Each district should get its own experts. People who live there should have a say early on. There should be squares and green areas for everyone. Homes and jobs should be close together.

The SPD wants to realign Bremen's housing construction strategy and create the conditions for 10,000 more housing units. The aim is an affordable option for everyone and fewer people moving to the surrounding region.

The SPD wants many new homes to be built. 10,000 new homes should become possible. Everyone should find an affordable home in Bremen. Fewer people should move away to nearby towns.

The SPD wants to step up social housing construction, keep the 30 percent social housing quota for new buildings and raise it in expensive neighborhoods. More middle-income households are to gain access to subsidized apartments.

The SPD wants more low-cost homes. In new buildings, 30 percent should stay social housing. In expensive areas the share should be higher. More people should be able to get a subsidized home.

The SPD plans a building program called "Lebenslang in meinem Quartier" (lifelong in my neighborhood). It is meant to let older people find a suitable barrier-free home in the district they know.

Many older people want to stay in their part of town. The SPD wants suitable homes built for them. The homes should have no barriers. People in wheelchairs should be able to live there well too.

The SPD wants to keep helping families with little equity buy an affordable home. Bremen's Eigenheimzuschuss (home-buyer grant) is to stay, become more attractive for existing buildings and be supplemented with low-interest loans.

The SPD wants to help families buy a house. This is for families with little money of their own. They will keep getting a grant. There should also be cheap loans. New row houses should be built too.

The SPD wants to create more residence halls for apprentices and students. This is meant to give these groups affordable housing and take pressure off the rest of the housing market.

The SPD wants to build more dorms. Apprentices and students live there. This makes housing cheaper for them. And other homes stay free for other people.

The SPD wants building projects to move faster. Permit deadlines are to be shortened, the building authority is to get more staff, and applications are to be filed digitally.

The SPD wants building to go faster. The office should approve applications more quickly. The office should get more staff. People should be able to apply for a permit online.

The SPD wants to introduce a Mietspiegel (official rent index) for the city of Bremen and apply the rent brake on that basis. In the Bundesrat it wants to push for stronger tenancy law, including a lower modernization surcharge.

The SPD wants to protect renters better. Bremen should get a rent index. That is a list of usual rents. With it, the rent brake should apply. Landlords should be allowed to pass on less of their upgrade costs.

The SPD also wants to gain new apartments by extending and converting existing buildings. This is meant to use less land, pave over less ground and save energy in producing building materials.

The SPD wants to build homes on top of existing buildings. Examples are supermarkets, offices or parking garages. This way less new land is needed. It also saves energy and building materials.

The SPD wants to upgrade former working-class districts through targeted urban development projects. In the Überseestadt, a new center with shops, green space and a neighborhood square is to be created.

The SPD wants to make older districts nicer. It plans building projects in these districts. The Überseestadt area should get a new center. It will have shops, green space and a square. The tram should run farther there.

The SPD wants to redevelop several Bremen districts, including Woltmershausen, Hemelingen, Vegesack, Kattenturm and Huchting. Plans include new housing, commercial space, public squares and better connections, partly funded through special programs drawing on urban development grants.

The SPD wants to improve several districts in Bremen. New homes, squares and workplaces should be built there. Hemelingen should get a market square. A new bridge should link Woltmershausen with the Überseestadt area.

The SPD wants to turn the area around the main station into two residential neighborhoods: the Falkenquartier to the west and the Rembertiquartier to the east. Large road structures are to be scaled back to make room for housing, green space and places to meet.

The SPD wants to rebuild the area near the main station. Two neighborhoods for living should grow there. Big roads and a traffic circle should shrink or go away. Homes and green spaces should be built on the free land.

The SPD wants targeted upgrades for Gröpelingen and Blumenthal because, in the program's view, these “arrival neighborhoods” do special work for the whole city. The city-owned company BREBAU is to take charge of neighborhood development, alongside special investment programs and an action program for Blumenthal.

The SPD wants extra support for two districts: Gröpelingen and Blumenthal. Many newcomers settle there first. The city should fix up buildings and create squares there. The districts should become attractive for families, trainees and students.

The SPD wants to set up a task force at the building authority that holds owners accountable for serious structural defects. It also wants to keep using the Wohnraumschutzgesetz (housing protection act) against vacant apartments and have the city buy large housing complexes.

Some buildings are in very bad shape. The SPD wants a special team at the building authority for this. It should make owners fix their buildings. The city should also act against empty apartments. The city wants to buy large housing complexes itself.

The SPD wants more land in city ownership and plans a land fund that buys plots in a targeted way. Public land is to be allocated primarily through long-term ground leases rather than sold, and this priority is to be written into law.

The SPD wants the city to own more land. A land fund should buy plots. The city should mostly lease its land instead of selling it. That means the city stays the owner and others can use the land for a long time. Sales should only happen as exceptions.

The SPD wants to expand neighborhood centers and other local facilities and secure proven projects with base funding. The programs “Lebendige Quartiere” and “Wohnen in Nachbarschaften” are to continue, and residents are to have a say in building plans.

The SPD wants more meeting places in the districts. Good projects should get steady money. Two funding programs for neighborhoods should continue. People should have a say in planning for their district.

The SPD wants to take action against landlords who let apartments decay or charge grossly excessive rents. The public housing companies GEWOBA, BREBAU and STÄWOG are not to be sold, not even in part. Socially oriented landlords are to get priority for new subsidized housing.

Some landlords do not take care of their apartments. The SPD wants stricter checks on them. The public order office should get more staff for this. Large housing complexes should have to employ a caretaker. The city's housing companies should not be sold.

The SPD wants to create tenant co-determination modeled on works councils. Elected tenant councils are to have a say in neighborhood matters and send a representative to the supervisory board, starting with public housing companies.

Tenants should have more say. The SPD wants to set up tenant councils for this. Tenants elect these councils. The councils have a say on questions about the neighborhood. At first this should apply to the city's housing companies.

The SPD wants affordable, senior-friendly housing with services to be available in every district. Older people should be able to stay in their familiar surroundings for as long as possible.

Older people should be able to stay in their district. They need suitable homes for that. The homes should be affordable and offer everyday help. The SPD wants such homes in all districts.

The SPD wants to make "Housing First" a permanent part of the regular support system and add 50 apartments per year. Low-threshold assistance is to remain in place alongside it, and new housing options for homeless people are to be created.

The SPD wants to help people without a home. With "Housing First," they get their own apartment first. After that they can choose to get advice. Each year 50 apartments should be added. Emergency shelters, meals and medical help should continue.