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Rostock Tenants' Day: Alarming demands for more social housing!
At the tenants' day in Rostock, an urgent shortage of social housing in Germany will be discussed - urgent demands for new buildings and tenant protection.
Rostock Tenants' Day: Alarming demands for more social housing!
The situation on the housing market in Germany is once again a hotly debated topic. On June 27, 2025, numerous delegates gathered in Rostock-Warnemünde to discuss the alarming developments in social housing construction at the Tenants' Day of the German Tenants' Association (DMB). According to reports from NDR The stock of social housing has shrunk by almost half since 2006 and currently stands at around 1.1 million. If you look at the demand, over eleven million renter households are entitled to a housing entitlement certificate. But the lack of social housing is alarming: there is currently a shortage of around 550,000 units nationwide.
The DMB warned urgently: Around 40,000 social housing units disappear from the market every year, while only around 25,000 are newly built. In order to counteract this situation, the DMB is calling for the stock of social housing to be doubled to two million by 2030. A total of 100,000 permanent social housing apartments are to be built every year. An investment program of 12.5 billion euros annually is required to promote social housing.
Background and demands
A study by the Pestel Institute reveals that state support for social housing has been severely neglected. Reports from German Tenants' Association According to this, there is currently a shortage of more than 910,000 social housing units. Yes, government spending on housing support has exceeded the 20 billion euro mark. In contrast, spending on social housing in recent years has been less than 2.5 billion euros per year, which shows a clear disproportion.
Particularly in the tight housing markets, such as Munich, job centers pay horrendous rents that are 50% higher than the average rent. This is not only a challenge for the tenants, but ultimately also burdens the public budget with additional costs of around 700 million euros annually. At the tenants' day, delegates called for the reduction or abolition of VAT on new social housing construction to 7% to become an integral part of the solution.
Joint efforts needed
The importance of a social quota when allocating social housing was also highlighted at the tenants' day. The introduction of “housing hardship commissions” in all municipalities is intended to ensure that social criteria are taken into account when allocating apartments. A quota of at least 10% of newly built social housing should be reserved for people with disabilities.
The city of Rostock has already announced that it will create 26,000 new apartments by 2035, and there is currently intensive discussion about a new property tax. These efforts are to be supported in particular by a planned increase in the minimum wage to 14.60 euros in two steps. Having a good hand in implementing all of these measures is essential in order to make living space accessible to everyone again.
The mood at the tenant day was dominated by the urgent need to address the challenges. Melanie Weber-Moritz was elected as the new full-time president of the DMB, while Lukas Siebenkotten resigned from office after 18 years. As the discussions about future housing policy show, there is still a lot of work ahead of us.