Agreement signed: Will living in Berlin become cheaper?

Created: 06/20/2022Updated: 06/20/2022, 17:15

Berlin's Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey poses in the Red City Hall.

© Joerg Carstensen/dpa

Politicians, the real estate industry and tenant organizations spent six months negotiating faster construction and cheaper housing.

An agreement on the results is signed.

But what's the point?

Berlin - After around six months of negotiations, the Berlin Alliance for New Residential Construction and Affordable Housing has agreed on a series of measures designed to speed up construction in Berlin and slow down the rise in rents.

Senate members, district mayors, representatives of cooperatives, real estate companies and industry associations signed a joint agreement on Monday in the Rotes Rathaus.

However, the Berlin Tenants' Association and the Central Real Estate Committee (ZIA) had previously announced that they would not support the declaration.

The real estate group Heimstaden was also not part of the party, but will follow suit, assured Berlin's Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) after the signing ceremony.

She assumes that the list of signatories will continue to grow.

"We have achieved more than is even discussed in other federal states," she said.

According to the 22-page agreement, at least 100,000 new apartments are to be completed in Berlin by the end of 2026, half of them in the lower and middle price segment.

Development plans for this should be available within three years.

At the same time, up to 5,000 social housing units are to be subsidized each year - 740 million euros are earmarked for this in the budget for 2022 and 2023.

In addition, the large private housing companies have committed themselves to reserving 30 percent of the apartments to tenants who are entitled to a housing entitlement certificate (WBS).

The alliance partners have also agreed that there should be no increases in the net cold rent, which would lead to a burden of more than 30 percent of the net household income for households entitled to WBS.

And the large private housing companies will in future be guided by the cap for rent increases of 11 percent in three years.

This is also planned in the federal government, but it is not yet certain when.

Berlin prefers the regulation to a certain extent.

Such measures do not go far enough for the Berlin tenants' association, and at least in part too far for the central association of the real estate industry ZIA.

Others expressly expressed their approval on Monday: "We are very happy about this alliance," said Jörg Franzen, board member of Gesobau, on behalf of the municipal housing association.

Maren Kern, head of the Association of Berlin-Brandenburg Housing Companies (BBU), also said she was glad that the alliance had been set up at a “breathtaking pace”.

"We made big concessions," Kern said.

However, she now also expects an acceleration in the construction processes.

Building Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) admitted that 100,000 apartments by the end of 2026 was a very ambitious goal.

“We will all have to make an effort together.” He also saw the need to speed up the construction process.

also read

"Don't know what you have against me" - Desperate DHL customer turns to messenger with notice

Missing Rebecca Reusch: the public prosecutor's office confirms investigations - the family's lawyer comments

Vonovia boss Rolf Buch called the challenges on the housing market in Berlin dramatic.

"And that's why I'm glad we have this alliance."

Giffey's idea of ​​relying on cooperation instead of confrontation has at least cleared a first hurdle.

Her deputy, Klaus Lederer from the Left Party, admitted that it wasn't easy to reconcile such different actors.

The culture senator known himself as a "friend of the socialization of large housing companies", as the initiative "Deutsche Wohnen & Co. expropriate" demands.

He would like to take the wind out of Giffey's sails with their alliance.

Critics of the alliance, not least from the initiative and from the Berlin left, have long criticized that the measures are not the right ones to relax the housing market and stop the rent increase in the capital that has been going on for years.

It remains to be seen who is right.

Berlin's green mayor Bettina Jarasch dampened too many expectations: the agreement was only the first step.

dpa