What do the parties in Lower Saxony say on housing?

The AfD wants to lower the real estate transfer tax and fully exempt the first purchase of an owner-occupied home. The aim is to raise the home ownership rate, especially among average earners and young families.

People pay a tax when they buy a home. The AfD wants to lower this tax. For a first home of your own, there should be no tax at all. More people should be able to own their home.

The AfD wants more support for new housing construction instead of rent caps and rent brakes. In its view, a larger supply will slow rent increases. The plan includes a state-owned housing company, fewer building rules, faster permits and higher housing benefits.

The AfD wants more homes to be built. It believes more homes will make rents cheaper. The state should have its own housing company again. Building permits should come faster. People with little money should get more housing benefit.

The CDU wants to make it easier for families to own a home through a state Baukindergeld (home-buying grant per child). For each minor child in the household, families are to receive 12,000 euros toward buying or building a property.

The CDU wants to help families buy or build a home. There should be a grant for this. Families get 12,000 euros for each child under 18. The money is for buying or building a house or an apartment.

The CDU wants to stop charging Grunderwerbsteuer (property transfer tax) on the purchase of a first owner-occupied home. It calls on the federal government to make mortgage interest for home ownership tax-deductible for ten years.

People who buy a house pay a tax on the purchase. The CDU wants to drop this tax for the first home of your own. Interest on the home loan should also lower taxes. This should apply for ten years.

The CDU wants to tackle high rents and purchase prices through more new construction and rejects a rent cap. There is to be no state-owned housing company; instead, it plans a construction drive with cooperatives, municipalities and private investors.

The CDU wants more homes to be built. It believes prices will then fall. It rejects a rent cap. The state should not set up its own housing company. The state's development bank should give loans for building.

The CDU wants to support municipal housing companies and cooperatives and to heavily subsidize construction, including by private investors, through the state's NBank development bank. Housing companies should get cheaper access to land, and tax depreciation for housing investment should improve.

The CDU wants more homes to be built. The state's development bank should give more money for this. Cities, cooperatives and private firms should all get support. Builders should get cheaper land more easily.

The CDU wants to implement the federal Baulandmobilisierungsgesetz (building land mobilization act) and help municipalities activate and stockpile land for construction. Suitable state-owned plots would be sold to municipalities at a discount, and rules on compensating for land use would be changed to free up more building land.

Many towns do not have enough land for building. The CDU wants to help them. The state should sell its own plots to towns for less money. Rules on making up for built-on land should also change.

The CDU wants to introduce a state-level conversion law that makes it easier to remodel buildings in city and town centers and to fill vacant lots. It also wants to act against vacancies and misuse of housing, and to simplify and subsidize adding stories and converting attics.

The CDU wants new rules for remodeling old buildings. Remodeling in town centers should get easier. Empty apartments should be usable again faster. People who add a floor or convert an attic should get money.

The CDU wants to create more affordable and rent-controlled social housing and to subsidize it. It argues that many subsidized apartments are still losing their rent restrictions and have rarely been replaced. It rejects a return to the nonprofit housing status (Wohnungsgemeinnützigkeit).

The CDU wants more low-cost homes. Many social apartments are losing their price limits. So the state should give better support for new social housing. The CDU does not want nonprofit housing status back. That is an old model with tax breaks for landlords who limit rents.

The CDU wants to roll out digital building offices statewide so that building applications and permits are handled electronically. In addition, standardized documents, standards and procedures are meant to shorten approval processes.

The CDU wants building offices to work digitally. People should apply for building permits online. They should also see how far their application is. This should make permits faster.

The Greens want to create at least 100,000 new, permanently rent-restricted social housing units. A nonprofit state company for housing and climate is to build, buy, and renovate public housing. The party reserves the option of taking real estate held purely for speculation into public ownership.

The Greens want 100,000 new social housing units. These are low-cost homes for people with little money. The state should set up its own company for this. It should build, buy, and renovate homes. The state may take over buildings that are only used for speculation.

The Greens want to realign housing subsidies so that ecological, energy-efficient construction and social housing are rewarded more. A focus is on converting vacant buildings, especially in rural areas.

The state gives money for building homes. The Greens want to hand out this money differently. More money should go to climate-friendly building. Converting empty houses in the countryside should also get money.

The Greens want the Mietpreisbremse (rent cap on new leases) to be usable wherever it is needed in the state and want to strengthen municipal rights of first refusal. The law against misuse of housing is to be tightened. A statewide hotline would offer free advice on tenancy law.

The Greens want to protect renters better. The rent cap should apply wherever homes are scarce. It limits the rent in new leases. Fewer homes should turn into vacation rentals. Renters should get free advice by phone.

The Greens want construction to rely on pollutant-free, renewable, and recycled materials. Renovation and conversion are to take priority over demolition. A building resource certificate would show the total energy and material input of a building.

Building creates a lot of waste. The Greens want to reuse building materials. Old houses should be converted rather than torn down. A new certificate should show how many raw materials are in a house.

The Greens want to align the state building code with climate and sustainability goals and focus it more on renovating and using existing buildings. Minimum quotas would apply for recycled building materials. Attic conversions and mixed uses are to become easier.

The state's building rules should change. Converting buildings should become easier than today. Materials like wood and straw should be allowed more often. Part of the building materials must be recycled. Homes above a supermarket should be easier to build.

The Greens want the state to be able to sell its own land below market value when it is used for subsidized housing or social and cultural facilities. Municipalities would get stronger rights of first refusal on building land, and the state land company would support them in developing settlements.

The state owns land. The Greens want to allow selling it more cheaply. This should apply to subsidized housing and social uses. Towns and cities should find it easier to buy building land first.

The Greens want more funding for climate-neutral neighborhoods and climate adaptation in cities, for example through unsealing surfaces, urban greenery and green roofs. Incentives for mixed and temporary uses are meant to reduce vacant commercial space in city centers.

The Greens want to improve the climate in cities. There should be more green and less concrete. Roofs should become green too. Empty shops downtown should get new uses, for example for culture.

The Greens want to help municipalities set up their own land funds. The aim is to bring more plots into municipal ownership, or back into it, so that cities and towns can better steer their development.

Towns should own more land. For this they can set up a land fund. That is a pot of money for buying land. The Greens want to help with this.

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 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 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.

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.