Politics
Berlin Senate Revises Public Housing Allocation Rules for City Residents
The updated eligibility criteria from the Berlin housing authority will alter how residents apply for subsidized apartments starting in August.
How we reported this
The Berlin Senate approved changes to public housing allocation rules on July 7 that shift priority toward households already living in the city for at least five years. The measure affects the 180,000 units managed by the state-owned housing companies and applies to new applications filed after August 1.
Local housing lists have grown by roughly 40,000 names since 2023, according to the Senate Department for Urban Development figures released in May. Officials say the revision responds to pressure on existing stock from internal migration within Germany and from residents displaced by private-market renovations in districts such as Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and Neukölln.
Changes for current applicants
Under the new points system, Berlin residents who have paid local rent for the previous five consecutive years receive an automatic 15-point bonus. Families with children enrolled in a Berlin primary or secondary school gain an additional 10 points. The legislation states that these adjustments replace earlier weighting that gave equal standing to applicants from other parts of Germany.
A single parent living in a two-room flat in Wedding who has held a local tenancy since 2020 would now rank higher than an applicant arriving from another federal state with the same income level. Policy analysts note that processing times for approved applications are projected to shorten from an average of 14 months to 11 months once the new scoring takes effect.
Budget and next steps
The 2026 city budget paper allocates 95 million euros to expand the municipal housing stock by 2,800 units over the next two years. The Senate Department for Finance confirmed that 60 percent of this amount comes from redirected property-tax revenue rather than new borrowing.
Residents can submit updated applications through the housing portal beginning July 15. The authority expects to issue the first decisions under the revised rules by late September, with priority given to households whose current leases expire before December.