Politics · Germany · 57 mins ago
Germany’s Left party seeks law to identify vacant homes using electricity data
Germany’s Left party wants municipalities to use electricity meter data to find homes that may be standing empty.
The party says vacant homes matter during a housing crisis because they are not available to people who need a place to live.
Some municipalities, including Wuppertal, already use electricity data to estimate vacancy.
Current rules allow anonymised data to be used, according to a legal opinion commissioned by the party’s housing spokesperson, Katalin Gennburg.
But using the data to identify specific homes and their owners would require a change to federal law.
A previous effort to use the method in Berlin ran into privacy concerns.
Gennburg is asking the federal government to make the legal change, but no next step is given.
Germany’s Left party is calling for a federal law change to let municipalities use electricity data to identify specific vacant homes.
The party says the change would help hold owners accountable for leaving homes empty during a housing crisis.
A report commissioned by Left party lawmaker Katalin Gennburg says anonymised data can already be used, but identifying specific cases requires a change to federal law.
Some German municipalities, including Wuppertal, already use electricity-meter data to assess vacancies.
A similar proposal by the Left in Berlin previously failed amid data-protection concerns.
- Who
- Germany’s Left party, including its housing policy spokeswoman Katalin Gennburg.
- What
- The party wants a federal law change so municipalities can use electricity data to identify vacant homes and their owners.
- When
- The report and proposal were reported on October 13, 2026.
- Where
- Germany. The proposed change would apply nationally, and municipalities would use the data.
- Why
- The party says vacant homes worsen the housing crisis and should be made available to people who need housing.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Some municipalities in Germany, including Wuppertal, used electricity-meter data to assess vacant homes.
A Left party initiative to use the method in Berlin failed amid data-protection concerns.
Gennburg commissioned a report from the Bundestag’s Scientific Service.
The Left party called for a federal law change to allow municipalities to identify specific vacant homes using electricity data.
- Proposed change
- Amend federal law to let municipalities identify specific vacant homes using electricity data
- Report author
- Bundestag’s Scientific Service
- Party lawmaker
- Katalin Gennburg
- Existing municipal use
- Wuppertal and some other German municipalities
- Potential legal route
- Add a clause to the Metering Point Operation Act
What people are saying
For us as the Left, it is clear that in times of an advanced housing and climate crisis, we simply can no longer afford vacant homes.
With such a federal opening clause, vacant apartments could finally be identified without difficulty and owners who irresponsibly leave apartments empty could be held accountable.
Vacancy is the spatial manifestation of a social distribution conflict and makes the housing crisis truly tangible: what exists is not available to those who need it.
If data is anonymised, and therefore not personal, the aforementioned data-protection restrictions do not apply.
Sources
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