Sören Pellmann, the leader of the Left Parliamentary Group, sharply criticized the federal government’s strategy of using the state-run Deutschlandfonds to stimulate private investment in housing. Pellmann told the “Rheinische Post” that the government’s reliance on the fund to leverage private capital is merely “window dressing.” He argued that publicly-private partnerships will not solve the housing crisis, as more public money will simply flow into “faulty partners,” perpetuating the flawed housing policy of recent decades.
Instead, Pellmann proposed a radical alternative: initiating a massive revitalization of social housing by establishing an annual investment program of 25 billion euros, which he believes would successfully lower rents back to affordable levels.
This critique comes as Federal Minister of Construction Verena Hubertz (SPD) previously explained to “Der Spiegel” that the purpose of her own housing development fund is to test the market and leverage private capital to promote the construction of more affordable and climate-friendly housing.
