Culture Senator Klaus Lederer (left) considers an income-related rent cap to be “unrealistic”. A procedure for examining tens of thousands of tenancies is not practicable, he told the Tagesspiegel about a proposal by the governing mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD).
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“At best, this is a suitable solution for cases of hardship,” said her coalition partner. Giffey had suggested that renters should spend a maximum of 30 percent of their income on rent. She had suggested that a “public rental price inspection agency, which would determine how much the rent was exceeded”, could be set up.
Lederer rejected Giffey’s criticism of the left-wing faction’s position on housing market policy. “Everyone is currently thinking about solutions to the rent issue. There’s no point in throwing vocabulary at each other.” Giffey had criticized a position paper by the coalition partner against excessive densification of existing housing estates – the SPD is expressly in favor of densification.
Another proposal by the left to increase the proportion of social housing in large new construction projects to 60 percent is not realistic and came like a “quay out of a box”, according to Giffey.
The CDU is also skeptical as to whether an income-related rent cap will solve the problems. “The target is correct, but it is not a new proposal. Large housing companies such as Deutsche Wohnen have been doing this for a long time,” said CDU faction leader Kai Wegner on Sunday.
“This tenant promise can be a result at the end of the planned housing alliance. But this will only be achieved if, in return, more and more affordable housing is created faster. As long as the topic of expropriation looms over everything as a threat, this will not succeed.”
