According to the owners’ association Haus & Grund, the SPD’s plan to levy health‑insurance and nursing‑care contributions on rental income would cause significant rent increases.
The newspaper “Bild”, citing several Haus & Grund calculations, says that the proposal could push rents up by as much as 15 %. The reason, explained by Haus & Grund president Kai Warnecke, is that most private landlords do not have the financial capacity to absorb the extra costs themselves; they would have to pass them on to tenants. Warnecke noted, “Most private landlords earn only a two‑percent marginal return, so a 15 percent surcharge cannot be absorbed”. He added that burdening rents with additional levies inevitably makes housing more expensive, describing it as straightforward math.
Hendrik Bollmann, the SPD’s spokesperson for housing policy in the Bundestag, rejected the warning about higher rents. He told “Bild” that the party would lay the groundwork so that future concepts would not allow extra charges to be passed on to tenants. Bollmann emphasized that tenant protection is the SPD’s highest priority.