Housing alliance signs joint declaration

Andreas Geisel (SPD), Senator for Building, and Franziska Giffey (SPD), Governing Mayor of Berlin, at a meeting of the Alliance for New Housing Construction and Affordable Housing in Rote Rathaus.

The Berlin Alliance for New Housing Construction and Affordable Housing will present the results of its deliberations on Monday (June 20, 2022).

The announced joint agreement is to be signed Monday afternoon in the Red City Hall, the Senate Chancellery announced on Friday. The participants of the round with representatives from politics, housing industry and associations had met on Wednesday (June 15, 2022) for their last working session. The agreement is intended to help accelerate housing construction in the capital and curb further rent increases after Berlin's rent cap law failed before the Federal Constitutional Court last year.

More housing for tenants with WBS

Among other things, there is to be a limit on increases in existing rents to a maximum of 30 percent of their household income for tenants with entitlement to a housing benefit certificate (WBS). Large private housing companies are also to undertake to allocate at least 30 percent of apartments to tenants with WBS entitlement when they re-let them. A voluntary rent freeze for several years, which had been discussed in the meantime, is not included in the agreement.