coalition partner
FDP and SPD agree on rent control and “quick freeze”
View of renovated old building facades in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg. The rent control in tight housing markets is to be extended until 2029. photo
© Monika Skolimowska/dpa
The Federal Minister of the Interior is promoting the storage of IP addresses because they are the only trace in some investigations. Now things will probably be different. This has to do with the housing market.
Extension of the rental price cap until 2029
Part of the agreement is the extension of the rent cap in tense housing markets until 2029, as provided for in the coalition agreement. The traffic light is thus reacting to the continued difficult situation in many housing markets, said Lieb. The rent cap ensures that when a new rental agreement is concluded, the rent may in principle not be more than ten percent above the local comparative rent. The respective state government decides whether the rent control applies in certain areas.
The SPD and the Greens would like to see further changes to tenancy law, some of which are also included in the coalition agreement. According to reports, no changes to the maximum increase in existing rents within a certain period of time (cap limit) or to the further development of the rent index have been agreed with Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP), who is responsible for tenancy law.
For tenants, it is “very good news that the coalition partners have now given up their mutual blockade,” said Green Party parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge. Your group now expects that the other measures agreed in the coalition agreement will also be “addressed quickly”.
According to reports, this is unlikely to happen, even if Buschmann and the FDP will probably not completely ignore the debate about it. Only when considering a ban on index rental agreements, which were not part of the coalition agreement, did the Minister of Justice clearly state that this could not be done with him. In an index rental agreement it is agreed that if the cost of living increases, a rent adjustment of a corresponding amount is also possible. In return, the landlord waives the right to adjust the rent to the local comparative rent.
The President of the umbrella association of the real estate industry, ZIA, Andreas Mattner, said: “I assume that further tightening is now off the table.” Otherwise, housing construction in Germany could come to a standstill for years.
Data storage not without reason
With the “Quick Freeze” procedure, the data is only saved if there is suspicion of a crime of significant importance – such as murder or manslaughter. From the point of view of Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), this is not enough. She recently advocated for a new, legally compliant regulation for the storage of telecommunications traffic and location data without any reason. Due to legal uncertainties, the old data retention regulation has not been used since 2017.
“The current agreement on the introduction of a quick-freeze procedure will finally implement a central demand of the Green alliance’s civil rights policy,” said the deputy chairman of the Green parliamentary group, Konstantin von Notz. The agreement represents “a move away from mass data storage for no reason and a decisive step towards a security policy that improves law enforcement and at the same time is proportionate and respects the freedom of citizens.”
Buschmann had linked tenancy law with data storage
To protect against sharply rising rents, the SPD in the Bundestag has been demanding more commitment from Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann for months. The FDP politician has not yet launched any of the projects agreed in the coalition agreement, criticized the deputy parliamentary group leaders Verena Hubertz and Dirk Wiese in February. Time is running out. The rent cap expires at the end of 2025 and the states would need a year and a half in advance for an extension. When asked about tenancy law in recent months, Buschmann usually replied smugly that there were other projects from the coalition agreement that had not yet been implemented – and this meant his demand for the introduction of the “quick freeze” procedure .
What’s next?
Two drafts are now to be written relatively soon in the Federal Ministry of Justice: A draft for data storage, which will then be slightly different than the draft that he presented in October 2022 and which was met with great criticism in the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Since the rent cap is basically an existing regulation that is to be extended, it can be assumed that Buschmann will soon send this draft to the other federal government departments for coordination. Although the two projects have nothing to do with one another, it is likely that they will be approved by the cabinet on the same day.