Real estate industry: New settlements for soldiers: Vonovia wants to “help”

Germany’s largest landlord Vonovia, as the operator of new soldier settlements, brings himself into play. “If you ask us, we are helpful,” said Vonovia CEO Rolf Buch from the Finanz-Nachrichtenagentur DPA-AFX and the German Press Agency in Bochum when asked whether Vonovia could also provide apartments for soldiers. “Thanks to our many years of experience in housing construction, we are able to build suitable accommodations and to grant occupancy rights for the Bundeswehr as part of cooperation.”

At the end of July, around 183,000 soldiers worked for the Bundeswehr. According to the new NATO goals, the Bundeswehr will have to achieve a personnel strength of at least 260,000 men and women in the active group in the future.

Apartments could increase job attractiveness

For example, to offer a job of 400 kilometers away from the family from the family, for example, “not a particularly attractive offer,” said Buch. “If I want to deal with people somewhere else, I also have to see that I have an apartment for them. Otherwise it will be difficult with employment.”

Vonovia comes from the plant building and had previously taken over stocks from the federal government. “This also includes real estate in the Bundeswehr.” In this context, book spoke of a “factory building 2.0”.

Book advertises for cooperation with Vonovia

It makes no sense that companies founded new factory housing companies again. These could not work as efficiently from the start as a large housing company. “It is much better to do that with Vonovia”. This can be done “by making existing apartments available or building new ones that we then manage on behalf of third parties”.

Vonovia boss sees a departure in Immo industry

Overall, there is again a departure in the real estate industry. “The framework conditions have improved so far that we can look ahead again,” he said. The Federal Government had taken an important first step with the constructionurbo. However, it will still take a while until the constructionurbo and the cheaper KfW loans just announced resulted in concrete new buildings. “It doesn’t work overnight.”

With faster permits and a waiver of development plans, the Federal Government wants to boost the slow new housing construction in Germany. New special regulations in the Building Code should ensure that foreseeable is planned, approved and built much faster. The municipalities should be able to decide for themselves to what extent they use the deviations from construction planning law that will initially apply by the end of 2030.

Book: “Bauturbo” an important impulse

“The Federal Government has set an important impulse for housing construction with the” Bauturbo “,” said the Vonovia boss. “Now it is mainly up to us, the construction of the economy, and the municipalities to use these new freedoms in building.”

In recent years, the construction costs have not increased solely through material costs, but also on the basis of legal requirements in the new building. Including property, the construction of new apartments over 5,000 euros per square meter costs. However, the costs would have to drop to less than 3,500 euros per square meter so that affordable rents could be realized in the new building, the manager emphasized.

“Big cities in particular know that they have to solve the housing problem so that they don’t fly around their ears,” said Buch. The housing shortage will be one of the most important topics in the next elections. “If the housing shortage remains unsolved, the political edges in particular benefit from it.” In the coming year, the elections to the state parliament and the district parliaments will be scheduled in Berlin.

The state alone, which is convinced of this, will not be able to cope with the housing shortage. “The 500 billion euros planned by the federal government for the infrastructure in the next 12 years is a lot of money. However, the construction of 320,000 new apartments annually costs 100 billion euros every year,” the manager calculated. Therefore, public funds would have to be used in such a way that they attract private capital and trigger additional investments.

Therefore, book appealed for stable and reliable framework conditions, especially in tenancy law. “The current regulation tightens social tensions, as new contract rents increase significantly more than inventory rents,” said Buch. Instead of ever new state interventions, solutions are needed so that system -related professional groups such as nurses, fire brigade or craft could find affordable housing in the cities.

Vonovia wants to start construction of 3,000 apartments in 2025

Vonovia herself has resumed his new building program, which was laid on ice for two years. The company wants to start building 3,000 new apartments in the current year. Vonovia also has land on which up to 70,000 apartments can be built. “However, we have to get the new building financed,” said the manager. The procurement of equity is currently too expensive due to Vonovia’s share price. The company recently had a bond in Australian dollars for the first time.