In view of rising rents, Green Party leader Katharina Dröge is calling for the reforms announced in the coalition agreement with the SPD and FDP to be speeded up. “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.
Bushman against restriction on index rents
In the coalition agreement, the traffic light parties had agreed to extend the rental price brake until 2029 and to lower the cap on rent increases to eleven percent in three years. There is currently a limit for rent increases of 20 percent in three years. In areas with a tight housing market, it is 15 percent. Plans to limit index rents are not mentioned in the coalition agreement. Indexed leases allow landlords to increase rents annually as consumer prices rise.
The Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP), who is responsible for the topic, has so far spoken out against a restriction on index rents. However, the topic is also approved by the SPD.
In a resolution paper for the SPD parliamentary group meeting today and Tuesday in Wiesbaden, there is talk of a “nationwide rent freeze”. In addition, the paper calls for index rents to be linked 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.
