CDU announces policy designed to tackle Berlin’s housing crisis

The opposition CDU party in German Government Traffic Light Coalition announced its plan to tackle Berlin’s housing crisis – and it includes adding a new neighborhood to the city.

CDU opposition reveals policy to deal with Berlin’s housing crisis

The CDU and the CSU, its sister party based in bavariaproposed a plan to address the crisis that is overwhelming the housing market in Berlin. The 30-page proposal calls for “a lodging for all” which aims to solve the series of problems which currently leave many Berliners insecure; weak tenant protection, lack of new housing being built and unaffordability of buy a property.

The plan includes a number of policies that would aim to reduce current and future housing crises in the city. The party wishes to set up a public register (Mietenkataster) which would list the cost of all rental housing. The system would allow tenants to easily search online before signing a rental agreement to find out what is the reasonable rent for a house or apartment in their area would be, for example, to use other units in the same building or the surrounding area as a reference.

Under the CDU plan, if you were a tenant and learned via the online rent index that you were paying a disproportionate amount of rent, you would have the option of contacting an independent rental regulator (unabhängige Mieten-Prüfstelle) for advice. The independent authority would include an arbitration board (Schiedstelle) with the power to make decisions on tenant claims, removing the need to go to court.

Update on housing assistance and student accommodation

The CDU, a party with 30 Berlin MPs in the German Bundestag, also wants to make significant political changes in social and student housing. Under their plan, social housing eligibility income limits would increase. The party said the policy would respond to the growing number of people who are unlikely to find affordable rental accommodation in Berlin’s housing crisis, but who also earn too much to qualify for social housing.

To be reckoned with disappearance of affordable student accommodation in Germany the Conservative Party’s plan also calls for the development of a student accommodation coordination office within the existing state-run Studentenwerk organization and to speed up the renovation of student residences.

The CDU wants to build on the Tempelhof park

The CDU has also expressed its intention to build on Tempelhofer Feld, once a airport it is now the largest public park in Berlin. This policy suggestion comes despite the fact that 63.4% of eligible voters in the city decided not to build on the land in a 2014 referendum. Echoing previous plans presented by the liberal FDP, the CDU believes that construction along the periphery of the park could be an answer to the housing crisis. The party said Berliners would again be asked to give their opinion on the matter, before a decision is made.

On top of that, CDU plans suggest adding the 13th arrondissement to Berlin with space for 60,000 houses and apartments, which would be partly in the State of Brandenburg.

“Berlin’s property market has gone off the rails,” said CDU leader Kai Wegner. Berliner Zeitung Sunday, shortly after the CDU released its plan. The newspaper saw Wegner’s statement as a sign that the center-right party has already begun to assess what policies could bring them back to power after lose the chancellery to the SPD in the federal election last autumn. “It’s an emergency and the SPD, the Greens and Die Linke are responsible,” said Wegner, whose party has been in government for 57 of the 72 years of the Federal Republic of Germany.