2023-04-21 11:35:44
He political party Die Linke, (The Left), proposes to reform the German Urban Leasing Law to include the exchange of flats between families for rent. Its housing policy spokesperson in the Bundestag, Caren Lay, defends that “it would mean that older people can move to a smaller apartment without paying more for their rent.” Die Linke was part of the government coalition in Berlin when they imposed a rent control that was overthrown by the German Constitutional. Prices in the capital have skyrocketed ever since.
A report from Pestel Research Institute It affirms that around 2.8 million older Germans would need more appropriate housing adapted to the needs of their age, and stresses that there are barely around 600,000 “barrier-free” apartments on the market.
The study was carried out for the Federal Association of German Building Materials Specialists (BDB), adds that only 17% of the apartments are currently free of thresholds or uneven floors and 22.4% have a level access shower.
“By 2040, at least 3.3 million homes suitable for the elderly will be needed, due to the aging of the population,” he stressed. Matthias Günther, study author.
The problem of the lack of supply in the rental market prevents many young people from accessing this market, but it also happens that many retirees continue to live in houses prepared for family life, larger than what they currently need, instead of to be able to move to smaller flats, with less load and adapted to their needs.
In Berlin there is already an exchange of public flats
Die Linke’s proposal offers the option of connect older people with young families to exchange their rental flatsand that everything is regulated under the protection of the Urban Leasing Law.
This measure is actually not new. In Berlin, tenants in government-owned housing can look for an exchange apartment. Inberlinwohnen.de, for example, includes apartments from six state housing associations where renters can trade houses. In many cases, the change of house means an increase in costs for one of the tenants, who assumes the change. And it is that sometimes the small apartment has a much more expensive rent, than the large apartment, depending on where it is located.
Die Linke also demands greater investment in social housing, and asks for 15,000 million euros to build apartments for people with low and medium income, in search of the Viennese model.
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