Left: State must not stay out of the housing market

Left-wing politician Juliane Nagel gives the state government a bad report card when it comes to housing policy and calls for the state to intervene. "The state must not stay out of the housing market - otherwise only people who can afford high rents and expensive properties will benefit. Everyone else runs the risk of being squeezed out," explained the politician in Dresden. Her party has had to laboriously wrest every little housing policy initiative from the coalition of Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU).

"For a long time, it has allowed living space to be misappropriated for vacation apartments or commercial premises or kept empty in the expectation of higher returns. Only recently have local authorities been allowed to take action against this," emphasized Nagel. The rent cap for Dresden and Leipzig also came very late and is not sufficient because it allows rents that are too high and does not apply to new builds or furnished rooms. The number of social housing units has fallen sharply - from 134,000 units in 2006 to 12,500 in 2022. "Even now, when the construction industry is in crisis, there is no intelligent investment policy in sight. The funding guidelines are still too complicated and there is a lack of money."

High time for public investment in affordable housing

According to Nagel, it is high time for public investment that creates affordable housing and promotes energy-efficient refurbishment. Funding programs should be particularly effective where many people on low incomes live. "Up to now, the poorer people are, the worse the energy efficiency of the building they live in. This means that those who have the least have to pay the most for heating." In order to change this, the state must intervene in the housing market and provide more support to non-profit providers at the expense of private housing companies.

"We want to give preference to municipal and public housing companies such as cooperatives - for example in the allocation of subsidies - and provide more funding for social housing," emphasized the Left Party politician. Social housing should remain social housing. A state-owned housing association should create and maintain affordable housing for municipal companies. "We want to introduce an effective rent brake and improve protection against dismissal in the event of termination for personal use."