Overview

• Raed Saleh has called on the federal government to insert a Länderöffnungsklausel into national tenancy law so individual states can cap rents again.
• He cautioned that tenants “can’t take it anymore” after Berlin’s rents jumped about 42 percent over the past three years.
• The Federal Constitutional Court annulled Berlin’s 2021 rent cap, ruling that states lack authority to impose such measures.
• Saleh framed regulatory intervention as the SPD’s “damned duty” and rejected the CDU’s faith in market self-regulation as out of touch.
• Earlier SPD housing initiatives, including a draft price-cap bill under Article 15 and coalition negotiations, have been stalled by legal and political obstacles.