A good and secure home - Degewo
A good and secure home - Degewo
A good and secure home - Degewo
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As far as counteracting rent increases is concerned, the options<br />
available to the State of Berlin are limited. Conditions in<br />
the housing sector are determined by private decisions made<br />
in the financial <strong>and</strong> real estate markets. Rent, tax <strong>and</strong> zoning<br />
law is predominantly federal law. Countermeasures such as<br />
financially effective public investments, subsidies or transfer<br />
payments are restricted by Berlin’s still very difficult budgetary<br />
situation.<br />
We are not, however, completely without influence on housing<br />
<strong>and</strong> rent policy. The instruments of urban planning <strong>and</strong><br />
building permission legislation allow us to determine what<br />
may be built where <strong>and</strong> how. Providing state-owned plots of<br />
l<strong>and</strong> for building supports housing construction, <strong>and</strong> our tenancy<br />
law initiative in the Bundesrat makes proposals in defence<br />
of tenants’ interests.<br />
3<br />
Our most important partners in housing policy are the municipal<br />
housing societies, which today manage around 17<br />
percent of Berlin’s rental housing. For this reason, the Senate<br />
of Berlin has formed an “Alliance for Social Housing Policy<br />
<strong>and</strong> Affordable Rent“ with the municipal housing societies.<br />
With this brochure, I would like to inform you about the most<br />
important goals <strong>and</strong> topics of this alliance.<br />
Yours sincerely,<br />
Michael Müller<br />
Senator for Urban Development <strong>and</strong> the Environment