Cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants in Hesse have work to do: they are now obliged to draw up a rent index.

The state parliament decided on Tuesday evening that the corresponding federal law on the rent index reform in Hesse will be implemented.

Cities of this size, which do not yet have a rent index, must comply with the obligation by January 1st.

These include Kassel, Gießen, Marburg, Fulda, Rüsselsheim, Bad Homburg and Wetzlar.

Rainer Schulz

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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You have the choice between simple and qualified rent indexes.

Both reflect the local comparative rent, but the procedures for determining this differ.

The simple rent index is drawn up by the municipality and representatives of landlords and tenants themselves, who contribute their knowledge of the local housing market and collect the necessary data themselves.

This simple rent index is revised every two years and adapted to market developments.

Appeal to the municipalities

The qualified rent index, on the other hand, meets scientific standards: the municipalities commission a specialized institute with the collection, evaluation and weighting of the data.

The result is then decided by a rent index commission.

The qualified rent index is recreated every four years and adjusted every two years based on the development of consumer prices.

The major cities in the region already have a rent index.

In Wiesbaden, Offenbach and Hanau there are simple rent indexes.

Frankfurt and Darmstadt have opted for the qualified variant.

Hesse's Economics Minister Tarek Al-Wazir (Die Grünen) appealed to the municipalities to go beyond their legal obligation and have qualified rent indexes prepared because they are scientifically sound and would be better recognized by the courts: "This is a very valuable instrument for protecting tenants and tenants,” said the minister.

That is why the state government is also promoting such qualified rent indexes with up to 70 percent.

The offer applies to municipalities with more than 40,000 inhabitants as well as to smaller municipalities if they join forces for this purpose.

One euro per inhabitant

The Hessian owners' association Haus & Grund praises the new obligation, because rent indexes are a "contribution to maintaining legal peace", as Managing Director Younes Frank Ehrhardt says.

As a result, a landlord who wants to justify a rent increase does not have to go through the time-consuming and conflict-ridden search for comparable apartments.

However, Ehrhardt advises the municipalities to use simple rent indexes.

The city of Wiesbaden, for example, has had good experiences with the simple instrument.

Because this is negotiated between the parties in a long, one-day meeting, Ehrhardt also speaks with a wink of the “red wine rent index”.

The result is accepted by all sides in Wiesbaden.

The data is collected and analyzed by the owners' associations and tenants' associations themselves.

Ehrhardt cannot see any significant advantage in a qualified rent index that would justify the high costs.

The construction costs the municipality around one euro per inhabitant.

“This is a significant additional budgetary burden with no further return.

A city can do just as well with a simple rent index.

The result is absolutely comparable and is accepted by the population.” The costs for the questionnaires and the printing of the simple rent index are negligible compared to the qualified version.