With a new ordinance, the Hamburg Senate is expanding the income limits for the purchase of subsidized apartments. The new regulation will come into force on April 15, as the Senate announced on Tuesday. The expansion of the income limits is a reaction to the persistently high inflation and the income development of the past few years, said Senator for Urban Development Karen Pein (SPD). “We make it possible for some of the currently eligible households to continue to receive a housing entitlement certificate despite increased income and expand the group of eligible people to include people with middle incomes.”
The proportion of eligible Hamburg households will increase from 33 to 38 percent in the first funding channel and from 41 to 55 percent in the second funding channel as a result of the new regulation. “In the future, more than half of Hamburg’s rented households will be within the income limits and entitled to a residence entitlement certificate,” said Pein. Without a corresponding adjustment, some of the eligible households would outgrow the income limits due to inflation without their real income situation having improved, it said.
The new regulation means that in the so-called first funding path for a one-person household, a gross annual income of up to 28,500 euros will be sufficient in the future to get the certificate of eligibility for social housing, it said. For a two-person household, the limit will in future be up to 42,200 euros, for a four-person household with a gross annual income of up to 65,500 euros. According to the Senate, the income limits for the second funding option will in future be EUR 35,300 for a one-person household and EUR 81,600 for a four-person household.
In a Germany-wide comparison, the city of Hamburg is by far the best in terms of the supply of social housing, the Senate announced. There are around 110 social housing units for every 1,000 rental households, which is more than double the national average and more than in all other federal states. Those looking for housing with low to middle incomes can apply for a residence entitlement certificate online or at the responsible district office. In the service portal, it can also be checked without obligation whether there is a right to a residence entitlement certificate.
However, a correspondingly subsidized apartment does not automatically exist – although the Hamburg rate is high compared to the federal states, as described, thousands of social apartments are missing. Recently, fewer and fewer have been completed. The reaction of the left is corresponding: “The logical step must now be to put even more money and energy into the creation of subsidized housing. It is of little use to those affected if Hamburg is in a good position compared to other cities. The glaring lack of social housing in Hamburg cannot be glossed over,” says Heike Sudmann, housing policy spokeswoman for the Left Party in the Hamburg Parliament.
