Tenants' association and DGB destroy the traffic light's housing policy
For most tenants, little has improved in the past two years of the traffic light government. They often still pay too much. There is still a shortage of hundreds of thousands of affordable homes in Germany. The interim report card for the government is correspondingly devastating.
The German Tenants' Association and the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) have criticized the federal government's housing policy as "inadequate" at the halfway point of the legislative period and warned of a worsening of the housing crisis. There is a lack of more than 700,000 affordable rental apartments, many of them in social housing, the two organizations announced in Berlin. Green Party leader Ricarda Lang called for relief, especially for families.
According to the DGB and Tenants' Association, the situation on the housing market has deteriorated over the past two years: in 2022 alone, rents have risen by an average of four percent nationwide, while the federal government's plan to build 400,000 new apartments per year, 100,000 of which are publicly subsidized, has been missed by a wide margin over the past two years.
Of the approximately 295,000 new apartments built in 2022, less than a third will be traditional rental apartments and less than a tenth will be affordable social housing. In addition, building permits issued in the first half of 2023 fell by 27.2 percent.
Massive investment required
Stefan Körzell, member of the DGB Executive Board, called the situation on the housing market a "socio-political scandal". He accused the German government of "obviously still not having recognized" the implications of the situation.
The tenants' association and DGB are calling for massive public investment in social housing construction and energy-efficient refurbishment. A rent freeze is also necessary. "Millions of tenants in Germany are overburdened with their housing costs and rents will continue to rise," criticized Lukas Siebenkotten, President of the Tenants' Association.
Already today, 3.1 million of the 21 million tenant households pay more than 40 percent of their income for rent and heating costs. According to the DGB and the tenants' association, 5.5 million households are unable to heat their homes adequately.
Lang wants tenant protection offensive
She sees the results of the two organizations as a mandate to "accelerate the federal government's housing policy plan", said Green Party leader Lang. In addition to a faster pace of social housing construction, a tenant protection offensive for affordable housing is needed. "Families in particular must be relieved quickly." She also reiterated her party's demands for a tightening of the rent freeze and rent cap as well as the limitation of index-linked rents.
In index-linked rental agreements, the rent is linked to the consumer price index, in return for which landlords waive all other adjustments. According to the DGB and the tenants' association, 30 percent of newly concluded rental agreements in the six largest German cities include indexation. Siebenkotten described index-linked rents and furnished accommodation as "the new cost traps".
However, the stakeholders were positive about the implemented housing benefit reform and the "Young Housing" support program, which was launched by the government with 500 million euros.
Read also:
- Year of climate records: extreme is the new normal
- Precautionary arrests show Islamist terror threat
- Numerous oil, gas and coal lobbyists at climate conference
- COP28: Emirates announce fund for climate projects
Despite the Traffic Light coalition's efforts, many tenants continue to struggle with high rents. The German Tenants' Association and DGB argue that the coalition's housing policy is inadequate, as the shortage of affordable housing has reached over 700,000 units, with rental prices increasing by an average of 4% in 2022. This situation has led the organizations to call for significant public investment in social housing construction and energy-efficient refurbishment, as well as a rental freeze to alleviate the financial burden on tenants.
Source: www.ntv.de
