Berlin’s local Greens party has proposed a new rental law which would sharply curtail landlords’ freedom to rent out their properties.
The party’s 34 city council members adopted a proposed Affordable Rent Act at a closed conference June 29. The party said it would present a detailed draft of the legislation in August.
This act forces private landlords to rent out a certain share of their apartments at a price at least 20 per cent under the average local rent.
The average local rent is calculated by the city and is already deemed far below the market rent. It serves as the basis for Berlin’s strict rent control laws.
On average, an owner could now only charge €5.77 per square metre a month – instead of €7.21 in average local rent.
Landlords would also need to rent out a certain fraction – up to 30 per cent for large commercial companies – of their properties to people with an annual income of less than around €42,000.
The gross median income in Germany for a full-time wage earner was €62,000 in 2024.
However, the landlords would not be allowed to choose these social tenants themselves. One in five tenants would be chosen by the city administration as “especially urgent cases”.
The Greens also want to force landlords to invest 20 per cent of their rental income in repairs and upkeep of apartments. Property owners would need to register with a German address so the city could reach them easily in case it wants to take legal action.
For landlords who do not comply with these proposed measures, the Greens are planning potential sanctions up to a forced sale of properties.
As the Greens wrote in their proposal: “Anyone who doesn’t play by the rules has no place on the Berlin housing market.”
The new rules would be overseen and enforced by a new housing office.
Berlin Greens co-chair Bettina Jarasch was confident the party could “achieve a lot” with the proposed law.
Housing speaker Katrin Schmidberger added: “We have an absolute housing shortage in Berlin. A sharp sword must therefore be wielded against rising rents.”
Others were less optimistic.
Libertarian pundit and entrepreneur Rainer Zitelmann called the proposal “the most brutal plan against landlords that ever was”.
While Berlin is currently governed by a coalition of the Conservative CDU and the Social Democrats (SPD) the Greens could feature in a centre-left government coalition after the next city elections in September 2026.
According to recent polls a three-party coalition of the Greens, Die Linke, and the Social Democrats would command a 73-seat majority in Berlin’s 130-seat city council.
