The Berlin Left Party is backing away from its promise of falling rents: under the party’s plans, socialised flats should in future allow rent increases of no more than two per cent a year. Left Party leader Ines Schwerdtner admitted this on the ZDF programme “Bosetti Late Night”, as zdfheute.de reports.
Referring to lead candidate Elif Eralp, Schwerdtner said there: “Elif Eralp said that she would cap the state-owned rents (…). They may be raised by a maximum of two per cent.” She justified this by pointing to the costs needed for refurbishment and maintenance of the flats. “Vonovia will keep raising rents. If they are in public hands, they will not rise as much,” said the chair of the federal party. “I cannot promise any individual tenant that rents would fall – that would be dishonest.” She had “never said” that she wanted to lower rents in Berlin through the socialisation of flats.
According to the Hamburger Morgenpost, “Spiegel” reported on the appearance. According to that report, Schwerdtner told the presenter: “I just don’t want to tell people here any nonsense.” The economics professor Harald Simons, who also took part in the programme, said according to the Morgenpost that the conversation had only made clear to him that the Left Party had not envisaged any rent reduction at all: “I also noted that with surprise in the exploratory paper.”
According to zdfheute.de, the party had demanded a “one-year rent freeze” for state-owned housing companies in its election manifesto. After that, rent increases were to be limited “to a maximum of one per cent a year”. In the exploratory paper with the SPD and the Greens, this had become a cap of two per cent a year, the Morgenpost reports, citing “Spiegel”. According to zdfheute.de, the Left Party had also stated on Instagram on 27 August that the rent cap could halve advertised rents in Berlin; on 4 July it said there about the rent freeze for state-owned flats: “Rents are not rising. Full stop.”
Concrete legislative plans have so far been lacking. According to zdfheute.de, Eralp wrote on Instagram on 6 November that they wanted to develop a financing concept in 2027; “by mid-2028 we will [present] a socialisation law”. Lawsuits against the plan could cause further delays.
