An insulated house does not have to cause rent increases, according to environmental aid and the tenants’ association
Photo: dpa/Daniel Karmann
The heat transition, the energetic refurbishment of houses, is an important building block for achieving the climate goals. However, the building sector was the only sector to miss the climate targets two years ago, and a gap of 12 million tons of CO2 is also forecast for 2021. In addition, an insulated house has so far meant for tenants that the rent increases. It is not uncommon for the insulation to save more than ancillary costs.
The German Environmental Aid and the German Tenants’ Association find: It doesn’t have to be like this. At the end of last week, at a press conference, they presented demands for how affordable housing and climate protection can be thought of together. “We urgently need to get out of oil and gas and focus on energy savings so that we can cover the remaining energy needs with renewable energies,” said Barbara Metz, national director of the German Environmental Aid. Against the background of current events, however, it is not only necessary from a social and climate policy perspective to finally make significant progress in the building sector. According to the associations, dependency on fossil fuels must also be ended from a security policy point of view.
»Lower-income tenants disproportionately often live in buildings with poor energy performance. They are particularly affected by rising energy costs and the price of CO2,” explained Melanie Weber-Moritz, Federal Director of the German Tenants’ Association. »Since these buildings are given priority to be renovated, we need relief here in particular so that the energy costs do not become second rent.«
The associations are calling for the CO2 tax to be divided between landlords and tenants in a tiered model. Tenants currently have to pay the CO2 price for heating and hot water alone, although they have no influence on the energetic condition of the building or the type of heating. Those who live in the poorest buildings in terms of energy should be relieved the most. According to the associations, owners should bear 100 percent of the CO2 price there.
In addition, the associations are calling on the federal government to increase and consolidate funding for energy-related refurbishment to at least 25 billion euros per year. So far, a large part of the subsidy programs has been used for the new building and there investments have been made in standards that are not compatible with the climate goals. Instead, the focus must be on the renovation of the building stock, the associations demand. In addition, the subsidy must remain with the landlords. The rent may not increase by more than four percent due to energy modernization, but by no more than 1.50 euros per square meter. So far, landlords have been able to add eight percent of the modernization costs to the annual rent, which sometimes leads to enormous rent increases.
The German Tenants’ Association and the German Environmental Aid are also calling for more relief for private households when it comes to electricity prices. The electricity prices for these have more than doubled in Germany in the last 20 years and are now the highest in Europe at well over 30 cents per kilowatt hour. The associations welcome the abolition of the EEG surcharge, which has already been decided by the federal cabinet, but criticize the exceptions for industry. They are also calling for the electricity tax to be reduced to the EU minimum. “The federal government must immediately initiate a renovation offensive in the building sector and introduce minimum efficiency standards for the buildings with the lowest energy efficiency,” summarized Barbara Metz from the point of view of environmental aid.