The owners’ association Haus und Grund warns that the reform proposals from Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) could weaken the housing market.
“Only a very small number of tenants will ever benefit from the legal changes” says Kai Warnecke, president of Haus und Grund, to the newspapers of the Funke‑Media Group. “At the same time it sends another signal to private landlords: do not invest, do not modernise”. According to Warnecke, this will make affordable housing unavailable in the future.
Warnecke continues: “The draft legislation is, in many respects, best‑intentioned but badly drafted”. He criticises the calculation of the furnishing allowance based on an individual wear‑and‑tear rate, calling it impractical and contentious. Under Hubig’s plan, the allowance should be deemed appropriate if it does not exceed five percent of the net cold rent for fully furnished properties. “A flat five‑percent rule for a fully rented apartment feels like a bad joke” Warnecke argues.
He also decries the grace‑period provision for rent arrears, which he says is unsuitable for private landlords. “The BMJV has failed to create a regulation that even private landlords can understand” he says.
Furthermore, Warnecke calls the proposed cap on indexed rents “symbolic politics”. He notes that only in rare cases does high inflation, an agreement on indexed rent, and the landlord’s declaration occur simultaneously. For landlords excluded from indexed rent by an energy renovation, the future lack of a cost basis will effectively ban such improvements, especially as the costs of energy renovations have risen far more quickly than the consumer price index. “Thus energy renovations are practically excluded, precisely because their costs have increased much more than the consumer price index” Warnecke concludes.
