Housing: SPD parliamentary group wants to slow down rent increases more

The SPD parliamentary group wants to slow down rent increases more. In areas with a tight housing market, they should not be allowed to rise by more than six percent in three years and also not exceed the local comparative rent. A corresponding position paper, which talks about a “nationwide rent freeze”, was unanimously approved at the closed conference of the largest government faction in the Hessian capital Wiesbaden.

There is currently a general limit for rent increases of 20 percent in three years. In areas with a tight housing market, the figure is 15 percent. In the coalition agreement, the traffic light parties had agreed to lower this cap to 11 percent. However, given the current critical situation on the housing market, the SPD parliamentary group does not consider this to be sufficient.

She also calls for a solution for index leases. These rents, which are linked to the inflation rate, have become a problem because the prices – and thus the rents – rose sharply as a result of the Ukraine war. “The previous regulation has often led to rent increases of more than ten percent per year,” argues the SPD. She now proposes linking index rents to the general development of net cold rents instead of to the inflation rate. But at least an “effective cap” should be introduced for such contracts.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is one of the 206 SPD MPs, attended the opening of the closed conference, but left the session before the votes were taken.

Green Dröge demands speed because of rising rents

Green parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge had previously called for speed in the reforms announced in the coalition agreement with the SPD and FDP in view of rising rents. “The extension of the rental price brake, the significant reduction in the cap limit and the clear regulation of index rents are urgently needed,” Dröge told the newspapers of the Funke media group.

Rents have risen enormously and are increasingly pushing people on low and middle incomes to their breaking point. “Nevertheless, we have been waiting for the implementation of the coalition agreement on affordable rents for 1.5 years,” said Dröge.

The Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP), who is responsible for the topic, has so far opposed calls for restrictions on index rents. “Our problem with rents is not that we have too little regulation, but too little living space,” the FDP politician told the German Press Agency two weeks ago. If the federal government wants to mobilize private capital for housing construction, it shouldn’t send out the signal “that more regulation is imminent.”