Rent control: Bundestag approves extension until 2029

The rent control was introduced in 2015. Since then, in certain districts, rents may not exceed local comparable prices by more than 10 percent at the start of the lease. The new regulation is intended to enable state governments to designate areas with a tight housing market through legal regulations, even after 2025, in which the rules will then apply.

Toothless tiger?

Critics complain that the rent control makes building less attractive. They point to declining building permits and completions. They also emphasize that it primarily protects people who already have an apartment, not those looking for one. Furthermore, it is not targeted, protecting, for example, senior physicians and nurses equally.