In June 2025, the CDU/CSU-SPD coalition extended the law on Rent regulation (Mietpreisbremse) until 2029. Now Justice Minister Stephanie Hubig has announced a "second package" that regulates index-linked leases, furnished apartments and short-term rentals.
The changes will affect three key areas:
1. An increase ceiling is introduced for lease agreements linked to the index. Homeowners will be able to increase the fee by no more than 3.5% per year from the previous net rental value.
2. Apartment owners will lose the right to evict tenants if they fully repay the accumulated debt. Previously, eviction was possible if there was a debt in the amount of two months' rent.
3. Landlords will be required to detail payments, clearly separating the fee for "bare" square meters and the fee for furniture. In addition, the government plans to impose a limit on the cost of renting such apartments and set a limit on the age of furniture in order to curb speculation on temporary housing.
4. The rules for countering rent increases will begin to apply to short-term contracts that are valid for more than six months.
Minister Hubig expects to adopt the law before the start of the summer parliamentary recess.
The announced measures did not satisfy the opposition parties. Hannah Steinmuller, an expert on housing policy at the Green Party, criticized the pace of the ministry's work. According to her, the submitted project represents the "absolute minimum". She called on the government to lower the rent limits and, most importantly, create real mechanisms to allow tenants to defend their rights in court.This is not the first time that criticism of regulation has been voiced. The rent limitation mechanism in force since 2015 is often called ineffective due to the large number of exceptions and loopholes. So, in November 2024, the Left Party launched an online calculator to verify the legality of rental rates. In the first year of operation, 220,000 tenants used the service, and two thirds of them found out that they were overpaying.
Source: I am Expat
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