New laws 2022 for tenants and owners

Reforms for tenants and owners

Extension of the rental price brake until 2029

The change in the federal government has resulted in some changes to rental law. For example, the so-called Mietpreisbremse, which sets an upper limit of 10 percent above the local comparable rent, will remain in effect until 2029. Previously, the extension only applied until 2025.

Reform of the rental cap

The current tenant protection regulations are being evaluated and extended. In tight housing markets, the cap is to be lowered to eleven percent over a three-year period. Until now, the regular cap has been 20 percent and the lowered cap 15 percent. This is intended to help ensure affordable housing.

Rent Index Reform Act

In the future, rental agreements for the past seven years are to be included in the rent index. This period was already extended from four to six years at the beginning of January 2020 and will receive a further extension as planned in 2022. A qualified rent index will be mandatory for cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants.

Design of the Real Estate Transfer Tax

The real estate transfer tax is to be made more flexible in order to facilitate the acquisition of owner-occupied residential real estate. Among other things, tax allowances are to be introduced for this purpose. It is also planned that the avoidance of real estate transfer tax through share deals, which is mainly used by corporations to save money, will no longer be possible in the coming year.

More housing through New Construction

The ever-increasing housing shortage is being countered through the implementation of measures to create new housing. The new government plans to build 400,000 apartments a year. A quarter of these are to be publicly subsidized, and funding for social housing and social subsidies for owner-occupied homes is to be increased. Through investment allowances and tax incentive programs, the non-profit housing association will be made more attractive to further support social housing construction. Furthermore, the existing straight-line depreciation for new buildings is to be increased from two to three percent.

Climate protection: Renewable energies

Energy-efficient construction and renovation along with the upgrading of buildings to renewable energies such as photovoltaic (solar) systems have been subsidized by the state for years. In 2022 this will be further expanded or rather the subsidies increased. Heating systems that run exclusively on fossil fuels will no longer receive funding from federal programs beginning in 2023. New-build standards are to be brought up to date with the KfW Energy Efficiency House 40 standard. Moreover, newly installed heating systems must be powered by at least 65% renewable energies from 2025.

Fair division of CO2 costs

The CO2 tax will make heating more expensive for tenants. After the German government decided over the summer that landlords could pass this tax in full onto tenants, the work program of the "traffic light" coalition will resume a fair division between tenants and landlords. To achieve this, a phased model will first be developed, divided according to building energy classes. This is to be completed by mid-2022. If this is not done, an equal split of the CO2 price for both tenants and landlords will apply from June 01, 2022.

Proof of taxation

Illegal financing of real estate is to be made more difficult in the future. The taxation certificate for private and commercial real estate buyers from abroad who wish to purchase real estate in Germany will serve as a measure to achieve this. In addition, real estate will generally no longer be purchased or paid for with cash. In addition, all changes in the title or land register must in the future be accompanied by a so-called summonable address. This means an address at which a person or legal party can actually be found.