BERLIN, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The German government has signed off a legislative proposal by Justice Minister Katarina Barley on Wednesday to toughen the country's rent control regulations.
The changes mainly concern additional information which landlords must now disclose prior to charging a rent which is more than 10 percent higher than the comparable customary rate paid by tenants in the area.
Germany first introduced rent control legislation which limits the additional costs which landlords can demand when signing new tenancy agreements back in 2015.
The policy is intended to alleviate financial pressures on German tenants in fast-growing urban centers where it is not uncommon for average rents to have doubled since 2008.
However, exemptions from the rent control are granted to landlords when the previous tenant already paid an above average rent and newer units built after October 2014 are excluded entirely from the legislative limitations.
Under the cabinet motion passed on Wednesday, landlords must automatically inform new tenants of the rate charged to their predecessors when they seek to obtain an exemption from rent control laws.
Additionally, the permissible rent increase which can be charged for modernization efforts will be lowered from 11 percent to eight percent in regions in which housing is especially scarce.
"High rents are the new social question. Inner cities must continue to be affordable for normal income earners as well," Barley argued on Wednesday.
Speaking to German media group Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland, she expressed confidence that the measures passed by the cabinet would "give tenants back some of their power" in this context.
Aside from enhancing protections for renters, Barley announced that the German government would make more funding available for social housing construction. The justice minister also emphasized that new builds were still exempted form rent controls in order to encourage private investment in the sector.
The changes agreed in Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet on Wednesday are subject to approval by the federal parliament (Bundestag).
