Berlin Plans to Introduce a Housing and Rent Register Berlin is planning to introduce a central housing and rent register. The database is intended to contain information on more than 1.8 million rental apartments in the city. The stored data will only be available to the responsible authorities and will not be accessible to the public.
In the future, landlords will be required to provide certain information about their properties.This includes the size of the apartment, the net rent excluding utilities, and additional service charges. The authorities will use this information to identify unusual rental conditions more easily and to investigate possible violations of existing rent regulations. The planned register is expected to become part of Berlin’s Housing Protection Act. According to the current plans, it would be the first housing and rent register of its kind in Germany. Vacant apartments are not expected to be included. It also remains unclear to what extent the information provided by landlords can be checked and verified for accuracy. The planned introduction of the register has received different political responses. Some parties are calling for additional measures, while others reject the creation of such a database entirely.
New “Simplified Construction Act” Adopted In addition to the housing and rent register, the so-called “Simplified Construction Act” has also been adopted. The aim of the law is to simplify and speed up construction and approval procedures. Certain building standards are to be adjusted, and shorter deadlines are to be introduced for approval processes. This is intended to make it easier to convert existing buildings and transform them into residential space. With both measures, the State of Berlin aims to obtain more detailed information about the rental housing market while also accelerating construction projects designed to create additional housing.
