Housing and rents are the dominant issues in Berlin’s September 20 state election, with the city needing 211,000 additional homes by 2040 while advertised rents have nearly doubled since 2014. Some 85% of households rent, and the dispute over whether to build on Tempelhofer Feld, the former Tempelhof airfield that became a public park in 2010, has become a central test of housing supply versus public green space. The latest Forschungsgruppe Wahlen poll, dated September 11, put the Left Party at 23%, the Christian Democrats (CDU) at 21% and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) at about 17%, ahead of the Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens; both the Left Party and AfD have roughly doubled their support since Berlin’s 2023 election. The vote also tests Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s struggling national government after the AfD won Saxony-Anhalt two weeks earlier, while neighboring Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania votes on the same day. The Left Party proposes affordable housing, a one-year rent freeze followed by annual increases capped at 1%, rent reductions for homes priced 20% above the local average, restrictions on holiday rentals and priority access to vacant central apartments for people eligible for social housing. The AfD has linked the housing shortage to calls for tighter immigration restrictions. The CDU, Free Democrats (FDP) and AfD support limited construction on Tempelhofer Feld, while the SPD, Greens and Left Party oppose building there and favor other sites. Berlin’s services-led growth has outpaced Germany’s sluggish economy but has also raised land and housing costs.