A good and secure home - Degewo

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