(de-news.net) – Germany’s federal justice minister Stefanie Hubig has advanced a legislative initiative designed to curb the growth of rents in contracts indexed to inflation. According to the ministry, the draft bill has already been circulated across the federal government for interministerial consultation, marking an early step in the formal legislative process. Under the proposal, annual increases in such index‑linked rental agreements would be capped at 3.5 percent, a measure the ministry views as necessary to counteract the steep rent hikes observed in recent years. Hubig argued that many tenants had been confronted with yearly increases of six to seven percent—levels she characterized as economically untenable for large segments of the population. The proposed framework is intended to apply uniformly to both newly concluded and existing index‑based leases and is expected, pending parliamentary approval, to enter into force by early 2027.
Parallel to these efforts, the ministry is preparing reforms for the regulation of furnished housing. To enhance transparency and facilitate the enforcement of rent‑control provisions, officials indicated that future rental contracts would be required to specify separately the base rent and any surcharge associated with the provision of furniture. This distinction is meant to prevent excessive or opaque pricing practices that have complicated oversight in the past. For fully furnished apartments, policymakers are considering the introduction of a standardized surcharge set at five percent of the net cold rent, which would establish a uniform benchmark for landlords and tenants alike.
The reform package also targets short‑term rental arrangements, which currently fall outside the scope of rent‑control legislation and can be repeatedly extended without restriction. The ministry’s plan would impose a firm upper limit of six months on such contracts. Once that threshold is exceeded—whether through renewal or a longer initial term—the tenancy would automatically become subject to the standard rent cap, thereby closing what officials view as a loophole that has enabled circumvention of existing protections.
