Die political party Die Linke has submitted a legal assessment of its proposed nationwide rent cap concept. Thorsten Kingreen of the University of Regensburg, who conducted the study on behalf of the party, concluded that all the suggested regulations are compatible with the Basic Law.
The party’s proposals go significantly beyond the existing rent brake. Key among them are mandatory local rent ceilings that would be binding and set below current official rent indices. According to Die Linke, the calculation of the locally standard comparable rent would also incorporate favorable social rents and older contracts, a change from previous methods.
Furthermore, the plan includes measures to slash excessive rents, enhance control mechanisms, impose fines, and establish specialized rent review offices. These rules would be implemented differently depending on the local housing market conditions, applying the strictest interventions in areas facing acute housing crises. Calculations suggest that offered rents in major cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich could decrease by as much as one-third, while savings on existing rents would be more moderate.
In response to criticism that a rent cap could jeopardize new construction, the initiators counter that there is already a housing construction crisis. Die Linke simultaneously demands an annual investment program of 20 billion Euros specifically for social housing development. The party argues that the rent cap would primarily affect large real estate corporations that profit from high returns, rather than small landlords. Caren Lay, spokesperson for the Linke parliamentary group on housing policy, stated that there is no such thing as a “right to profit.”
