What do the parties in North Rhine-Westphalia say on housing?

The AfD wants to provide social housing for homeless people. To do so, it wants to use vacant housing containers that municipalities originally set up for asylum seekers.

More people have no home. The AfD wants to give them a place to live. Many cities have empty housing containers. Homeless people should be able to live there.

The AfD wants to make buying a home easier and cut the property transfer tax in North Rhine-Westphalia from 6.5 to 3.5 percent. It also wants allowances for first-time buyers of owner-occupied homes and more support, including for housing cooperatives.

The AfD wants more people to be able to buy their own home. Buyers pay a tax when they buy. This tax should drop from 6.5 to 3.5 percent. First-time buyers should pay less tax.

The AfD wants to simplify building regulations and limit them to what is necessary. In particular, climate protection requirements it considers excessive should go, so that building becomes simpler and cheaper.

The AfD wants fewer rules for building. Above all, rules on climate protection should go. Permits should be faster. This should make building cheaper.

The AfD rejects the Mietpreisbremse (rent brake) and rent caps and wants more new construction through favorable conditions. Low-income tenants should get more support through Wohngeld (housing benefit), because the party sees social housing construction as costly and reaching too few people.

The AfD does not want state limits on rents. Instead, more homes should be built. People with little money should get more housing benefit. Life in the countryside should also become more attractive.

The CDU wants to make it easier for families to buy a home they live in themselves. First-time purchases are to benefit from an allowance on the Grunderwerbsteuer (property transfer tax), which would require the federal government to grant the states an opt-out clause. A state-level child-related homebuyer grant and rent-to-own models are also planned.

People who buy a house or apartment pay a tax. The CDU wants to cut this tax for a first home of your own. Part of the price should be tax-free. The federal government must change a law first.

The CDU wants more construction, more publicly subsidized apartments with regulated rents and more land designated for building. The platform names the shortage of buildable plots as the biggest obstacle. Tenant protection is also to be developed further.

The CDU wants more homes to be built. There should be more apartments with fixed, low rents. Cities and towns should find it easier to provide building land. Renters should stay protected.

The CDU wants to make construction faster, cheaper and more climate-friendly through new methods such as serial and modular building and 3D printing. Planning and permitting procedures are to become digital and shorter. To meet CO2 targets, the focus is to be on renovating buildings with high energy demand.

The CDU wants building to be faster and cheaper. New methods like 3D printing should help. Houses should use less energy. Permits should be digital and come faster.

The FDP wants to enable more people to buy a home of their own and to lower the ancillary costs. As soon as federal law permits, an allowance on the property transfer tax is to be introduced for owner-occupied homes. In most cases no property transfer tax would then be due.

Many people want their own house or apartment. Buyers pay a tax on the purchase. The FDP wants to drop this tax for most people who live in the home themselves. This should help young families most. Building should also become faster and easier.

The FDP wants to enable more renters to buy a home, including people who cannot afford it so far. It relies on loans, grants and cheaper interest rates as well as a lower real estate transfer tax.

The FDP wants more renters to be able to buy a home. The state should help with loans and grants. The tax on buying a home should also go down.

The FDP wants to make considerably more land available for construction. State-owned plots are to be used, vacant lots recorded, and the growth of cities and towns supported.

The FDP wants more land for building. The state should offer its own plots. Empty gaps between houses should be listed and built on. Cities should also be allowed to grow.

The FDP wants new high-rise buildings in tight housing markets and in neighborhoods facing particular challenges. They are meant to combine housing with education and community services and include some price-controlled apartments.

The FDP wants more high-rise buildings. They should stand where homes are scarce. The buildings should also have daycare centers and small shops. Some of the apartments should be cheap.

The FDP wants to give more support to new construction technologies and materials so that building becomes cheaper and uses fewer resources. The circular 'Cradle to Cradle' principle is also to apply to the state's own building projects.

The FDP wants to support new building methods. Building should become cheaper and use fewer raw materials. Materials should be used again later. The state should start with its own buildings.

The FDP wants building permits to be issued faster. Procedures are to run fully digitally, deadlines are to be shortened, and the state is to support municipalities that are short of staff.

The FDP wants offices to handle building applications faster. Applications should be digital. The office should check within ten days if all papers are there. The state should help towns with staff.

The FDP wants to put tenant protection rules under review and adjust them as needed. Rules it considers unnecessary are to be dropped.

The FDP wants to check the rules that protect renters. One of them is the rent brake. It limits how high a new rent can be. Rules the FDP sees as unneeded should go.

The FDP wants to keep public funding for price-controlled housing and make it more effective. Obstacles that slow the uptake of funds are to be removed and additional private investment encouraged.

The state gives money for cheap housing. The FDP wants this money to really be used for building. Obstacles should be removed. Private investors should also put more money into cheap housing.

The FDP wants to further relax building rules so that conversions, extensions and densification create more housing. In addition, standards that the party believes make construction more expensive are to be reviewed.

The FDP wants fewer rules for building. Then it is easier to extend roofs and split apartments. The many building standards should also be checked. This should make building cheaper.

The FDP wants to put more public money into building and renovating dormitories for students and apprentices. It says the supply of affordable places has fallen behind demand.

Students and apprentices need cheap rooms. The FDP wants more dorms built and old ones renewed. The state should give more money for this. It should also provide land.

The FDP wants to turn city and village centers into places where retail, housing, restaurants and culture come together. It plans another downtown initiative, simpler building law and support for retailers.

The FDP wants to bring life back to town and village centers. Shops, homes, restaurants and culture should be close together there. Empty shops should get new uses. Shops get help with selling online.

The FDP wants to extend the projects of the state initiative "Endlich ein ZUHAUSE!" (A home at last) to every county and independent city. Homeless people would be placed in permanent housing and people at risk kept from losing their homes.

Some people have no home. The FDP wants to help them everywhere in the state. A state aid program should exist in all cities and counties. Women, young people and immigrants should get help that fits them.

The Greens want to change the state building code so municipalities can set ecological requirements and built-up land is used better. Gravel gardens and large surface parking lots are to become a thing of the past.

The Greens want to change the state's building rules. Cities should be allowed to make rules for green building. Apartments should be possible above supermarkets. Large concrete parking lots should no longer be built.

With a new state building code, the Greens want to shift the construction sector to climate-neutral methods and recyclable materials within ten years. Solar panels are to become standard on new and renovated roofs. The program justifies this with the long lifespan of buildings and their effects on climate and health.

Buildings stand for many decades. So the Greens want new rules for construction. In ten years, all building should be climate-friendly. New and renovated roofs should get solar panels.

The Greens want to use every option under state law to limit rent increases in existing affordable housing. The Mietpreisbremse (rent brake) and the cap on rent increases would be extended, and conversions into condominiums restricted in tight markets.

Housing is expensive in many cities. The Greens want to protect renters better. Rents should not be allowed to rise so fast. Rental apartments should less often be turned into condos.

The Greens want to provide more subsidies for affordable housing and create considerably more such homes each year. Public land would no longer go to the highest bidder, and socially just land use would become a state objective in the state constitution.

The Greens want more affordable homes to be built. There should be more public funding for this. Public land should no longer go to whoever pays the most. New homes should be climate-neutral and barrier-free.

The Greens want to help municipalities redesign neighborhoods so that people of all generations can live there independently. A single funding program called "Quartier inklusiv" (inclusive neighborhood) is planned for this.

The Greens want neighborhoods for young and old. There should be green spaces, shops and meeting places nearby. Paths and homes should be barrier-free. A funding program for towns and cities would pay for this.

The Greens want to tackle homelessness with a statewide action plan and expand the "Housing First" approach across North Rhine-Westphalia. Homeless people would get a regular apartment without preconditions, plus personal support.

Some people have no home. The Greens want to give them an apartment first. This is called "Housing First." They also get personal help. Cities and towns will get money and support for this.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

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 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 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.

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.