Corporate News

Decision of the Federal Constitutional Court on the Berlin rent cap

"No tenant of Deutsche Wohnen will lose the home as a result of the decision"

- Quick decision by the court: tenants and landlords now have legal certainty

- Consensus of BBU members: subsequent claims should be made with the greatest sense of social responsibility

- Deutsche Wohnen's promise: no tenant of Deutsche Wohnen will lose the home as a result of the decision

Berlin, 15 April 2021. With the decision of March 25, 2021, published today, the 2nd Senate of Federal Constitutional Court has declared the so-called Berlin rent cap (MietenWoG Bln) incompatible with the Basic Law and therefore null and void. Deutsche Wohnen SE welcomes the court's swift decision, as it creates the necessary legal certainty for both tenants and landlords.

When implementing the decision, the company's promise applies: "No tenant of Deutsche Wohnen will lose the home as a result of this decision; we will proceed with the greatest sense of social responsibility." Deutsche Wohnen offers a whole range of options for settling the balance of the rent due: from one-off payments to instalment payments and deferments. In cases of social hardship, the company will find individual solutions together with the tenants.

With this procedure, Deutsche Wohnen is acting in complete alignment with the BBU Verband Berlin-Brandenburgischer Wohnungsunternehmen e.V. (Association of Berlin-Brandenburg Housing Companies), which represents more than 729,000 apartments and thus 44 percent of the stock in Berlin. Deutsche Wohnen is part of the initiative social housing sector of the BBU.

Deutsche Wohnen sees its responsibility to contribute to an easing of the housing markets, especially in metropolitan regions and conurbations. To this end, it is important to bring together all actors to develop solutions jointly.

Deutsche Wohnen

Deutsche Wohnen is one of the leading publicly listed residential property companies in Europe. The business focus of the company is on managing its own portfolio of residential properties in dynamic metropolitan regions and conurbations in Germany. Deutsche Wohnen sees itself as having both a social responsibility and a duty to maintain and newly develop good-quality and affordable housing in vibrant residential neighbourhoods. As at 31 December 2020, the portfolio comprised a total of around 155,400 residential and 2,900 commercial units. Deutsche Wohnen SE is listed in the Deutsche Börse's DAX and is also included in the leading indices EPRA/NAREIT, STOXX Europe 600, GPR 250 and DAX 50 ESG.