Guide
Wohngeld: who Germany's housing benefit actually covers
By Covered Abroad Research Desk · Last verified July 2026
Two subsidies, one purpose
§1 WoGG in full: das Wohngeld dient der wirtschaftlichen Sicherung angemessenen und familiengerechten Wohnens — and it is paid as a subsidy toward rent (Mietzuschuss) or toward the burden (Lastenzuschuss) of self-used housing. Tenants claim the first; owner-occupiers the second. It is a subsidy toward housing costs for lower-income households in work or on pensions — distinct from the unemployment-benefit system's housing coverage.
Source: WoGG §1 — gesetze-im-internet.de, read 10 September 2026.
Who can claim: the §3 definitions
§3's rent-subsidy rule: the entitled person is any natural person who has rented housing and uses it themselves — with rent-like use arrangements treated equally. The burden-subsidy mirror covers any natural person owning self-used housing, plus heritable-building-right holders and equivalent right-holders. The household rule matters for flatshares and families: where several people qualify and belong to one household, only one of them is the Wohngeld claimant — the household designates who.
Source: WoGG §3 — gesetze-im-internet.de, read 10 September 2026.
60-second check
Not sure the policy you have meets your destination's written rule? Run it through the policy check now, before you build the rest of the file around it.
Check my policyThe expat read
Wohngeld sits in Germany's benefits stack beside Kindergeld and Elterngeld: income-tested, application-based, administered locally (the Wohngeldstelle of your municipality), with amounts driven by household size, income and local rent levels — figures we don't reprint because the official Wohngeldrechner computes them against current tables. For a newcomer: it presupposes the registered dwelling reality of German life — registration first, applications second.
Source: Wohngeldgesetz — gesetze-im-internet.de, read 10 September 2026.