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Vonovia boss Buch calls for a brake on existing rents

2021-11-08T17:13:31.999Z


Many people can hardly afford a rental apartment. Rolf Buch, head of Germany's largest housing company, is calling for reforms from the new federal government.


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Vonovia boss Rolf Buch: "We have to be careful that existing rents don't explode"

Photo: Lars Berg / DER SPIEGEL

In many German cities, rents have risen sharply in recent years.

In "Business Unusual" SPIEGEL-Wirtschaftstalk, Rolf Buch, head of Germany's largest housing group Vonovia, therefore calls for the new federal government to take measures to prevent existing rents from rising too sharply.

"We have to be careful that existing rents don't explode," said Buch.

He sees the rent index as a lever, which serves as the basis for how much landlords are allowed to increase the rent.

The rent index has been criticized for a long time.

The main concern here is that the data basis is only made up of apartments whose rental prices have changed in the four years prior to the survey.

As a result, new contract rents are of great importance in many places, which enables landlords to increase rents sharply.

"This mechanism must be interrupted," said Buch.

People should be able to live in their homes without being afraid of losing them.

The Swedish model could be a role model.

"Existing rents there only rise in line with the inflation rate."

Buch hopes to talk to the traffic light government

Buch also wants the new government to have a building minister. So far, the area has been assigned to the Ministry of the Interior. He also hopes to be invited to talks about the future of living and building in Germany, said Buch. Representatives of the Ampelkoalition had announced that they would bring all the key players to one table for an »alliance of affordable housing«. "I support that very much". He hopes that his phone will "ring very quickly" after the government is formed.

He would like representatives of the landlords and tenants as well as social associations and town planners for the dialogue with politicians.

"It'll be a big table," says Buch.

The decisive factor for success is that the parties involved then stand by their promises and implement them consistently.

Buch referred to Hamburg's praiseworthy housing policy, which Olaf Scholz achieved as the first mayor of the Hanseatic city at the time with a comparable alliance.

hej / ire

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-11-08

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