Overview
- The coalition says legal reservations have been cleared and it will push the Wohnraumsicherungsgesetz, whose central measure is the Mietenkataster, through the Abgeordnetenhaus in early July.
- A public draft assigns the Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung und Wohnen to run a digital register that will list roughly 1.8 million rental contracts and record address, living area, number of rooms and the net cold rent.
- The Kataster is designed to compare recorded rents with local reference rents so officials can spot rents that exceed legal limits and flag cases for settlement, court action or prosecution.
- Under existing rules cited in the draft, new rents may top the local comparative rent by up to 10 percent, rents more than 20 percent above the comparison can be deemed overcharged and rises of roughly 50 percent may qualify as Mietwucher subject to criminal prosecution.
- Berlin frames the register as a transparency tool it expects will prompt many landlords to reduce excessive rents without disputes, but implementation will require administrative setup, data safeguards and clear enforcement protocols.