Our promise to our tenants
For Deutsche Wohnen, letting flats means taking on responsibility. This is why Deutsche Wohnen is a reliable partner in helping to overcome the major challenges facing the residential sector, namely urbanisation, climate change and demographic change. All of these affect companies and society in equal measure.
However, investments in holdings and new construction made as a result of these challenges should not be at the expense of tenants and must be socially responsible. This is why we take into account the individual income and circumstances of each indivdual: we want to relieve our tenants of any anxiety that they might lose their flat due to renovation measures or future increases in rent.
In July 2019 we have set down our mindset and a range of measures in our declaration ‘Our promise to our tenants’. With this voluntary commitment we are going well beyond the legal requirements and making a very concrete contribution to moderate rent development. At the same time we are maintaining the investment capacities that are so urgenty required.
Tenants to whom we have requested a rent increase have been able to invoke our promise since 2019.
This means that we:
- Only increase the gross warm rent after modernisation so that our tenants pay no more than 30% of a household’s net income.
- Limit future rent increases according to the rent index so that a household with suitable living space must spend no more than 30% of its net income on net basic rent – even if the rent index would allow further increases.
In addition, we have undertaken to allocate one in four new dwellings to tenants who are entitled to social housing.