The slump in new construction is exacerbating the housing shortage. Municipalities are also finding it increasingly difficult to create living space. A city in Rhineland-Palatinate now wants to increase the pressure on owners to prevent vacancies.
Lea Heidbreder walks through downtown Landau. The village has almost 47,000 inhabitants and is located in the south of Rhineland-Palatinate. She stops in front of houses with their shutters down. “Here in Landau, too, we have a tense housing market,” says the Greens politician. “Even in the center objects are empty – some for years. That’s why I’m in favor of a vacancy tax for permanent vacancies.” Heidbreder sits for her party in the state parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate. She is spokeswoman for construction and urban development.
She was surprised by the number of unused properties in Landau. “The authorities initially assumed there were around 200 objects. After a detailed check, it was over 800.” The city got the data via a so-called vacancy detector – an online portal of the Greens in Landau. The residents of the city were asked to report suspected vacancies on the Internet.
Possibly a fine of thousands of euros
Heidbreder rejects criticism that the vacancy detector is used to pillory owners. “When owners contacted us and asked for their entry to be deleted, we Greens in Landau followed suit. We also didn’t publish any names or other private data. We just wanted to get an overview of the vacancies in Landau. ”
The reasons for vacancies are varied, according to the politician. After a death, relatives initially need time to settle inheritance issues. Some owners are overwhelmed with new rentals. Others would have no money for the necessary renovation. “In these cases, we want to provide support so that the living space can be used again quickly,” says Heidbreder. It is conceivable, for example, to help with grant applications.
“But if it turns out that owners are only speculating on a higher return, the tax must be paid. We are prepared to pay two percent of the current market value of the property every year,” says Heidbreder. With a property value of 500,000 euros, this would correspond to a penalty tax of 10,000 euros – for every year in which an apartment is empty. A control can take place via the water and energy data of the objects. If these are low, this could indicate vacancies.
“This is not a condition”
Lea Heidbreder has meanwhile arrived at the marketplace. Mayor Dominik Geißler has his workplace there in the town hall. He supports the vacancy tax. “Landau is a university town. We have a lot of young people and young families who can’t find affordable housing. The city spends a lot of tax money to develop building land and promote social housing.”
From the balcony on the first floor, the Christian Democrat points to a building directly opposite. “There has been a huge vacancy over there for months. But we haven’t been able to contact the owner for months. Our administration has a long list of owners, it just says: not available. That’s not a situation.” According to Geissler, the city is breaking new legal ground with the planned penalty tax. The mayor expects resistance. In the end, the plan will probably be decided in court.
Fewer and fewer vacant apartments nationwide
In Berlin, Reiner Braun studies long columns of numbers. Braun is CEO of the empirica Institute, which evaluates developments on the housing market. According to the current survey, the nationwide vacancy rate is 2.8 percent. That is 607,000 apartments. The number has been trending downwards for years. These are so-called “market-active vacancies” – i.e. apartments that are ready to move into.
“The lack of available living space has increased. But there are big regional differences,” says Braun. In the east, the vacancy rate is 6.2 percent, almost three times as high as in the west. In cities like Munich, Frankfurt am Main and Munster there are hardly any vacant apartments. “What sense does a penalty tax make in these cases?” asks Braun. There are also practically no vacancies in many other cities, and many apartments in the country are vacant because there is hardly any demand.
In addition, it is extremely difficult from a legal point of view to effectively define vacancies with speculative intentions, according to Braun. “The lack of living space does not result from vacancies or speculation, but from scarcity.”
owners association sees local authorities as having an obligation
The reaction of the central association Haus und Grund – the interest group of private real estate and property owners – is also negative. There are no valid figures for speculative vacancies. “For private individual owners, the speculative motive is certainly at the bottom of the list,” judges President Kai Warnecke. “Vacancy means that there are no rent payments. But private individual landlords are extremely dependent on these.”
Instead of new taxes, Warnecke advocates new offers from cities and communities. “With the idea of a penalty tax, the municipalities often want to distract from their own omissions. However, they are the ones who have to create the conditions for living in their cities to become more affordable – for example by lowering the property tax.”
Warnecke sharply criticizes the data collection by the Greens in Landau. “Publicly accessible vacancy indicators are completely absurd. These are medieval methods that we strictly reject. We expect that the Greens in Landau will also act on the basis of the Basic Law.”
Will the penalty tax come in 2026?
In Landau, the vacancy rate is currently two percent – well below the national average. The city council wants to decide on the penalty tax on September 26th. With a two-year transition period, the levy could then take effect at the beginning of 2026.
Mayor Geißler also hopes for a nationwide signal function, as other municipalities would also consider a special tax on vacancies. He is calm about complaints. “In 2020, the scientific service of the Bundestag determined that a vacancy tax is possible. I am ready to go to court with a model lawsuit.”