More apartments at affordable prices, that’s what building minister Geywitz is about. Now she is bringing new players to the table – and they are directly questioning her goal.
Construction Minister Klara Geywitz is sticking to her goal of creating 400,000 new homes every year, despite problems in the construction industry.
Achieving this has become even more ambitious due to supply bottlenecks and skyrocketing prices for building materials and energy, said the SPD politician on Wednesday in Berlin. At the same time, however, the apartments were needed much more urgently. The construction industry, on the other hand, now considers the goal to be “illusory”, as was made clear at the start of an alliance for affordable housing.
In the alliance, Geywitz brings together the real estate industry, municipal umbrella organizations and stakeholders from the disabled officer to nature conservation organizations around one table. They should all work together to ensure that more affordable, climate-friendly apartments are built in Germany. That is already a major social task, said Geywitz. In view of the Ukraine war and the many refugees, it is even more important. “That means the framework conditions have become more difficult,” she admitted. “But of course we must not deny the goal in view of the need.”
Enormous need for action
However, the industry sees an enormous need for political action. “The urgently needed housing construction and climate-friendly renovation are on the verge of a standstill in Germany,” warned the President of the Central Association of the Housing Industry, Axel Gedaschko. “The massive supply chain problems since the corona crisis have persisted, there is chaos in the promotion of affordable, climate-friendly housing and the war against Ukraine is leading to further massive construction price increases and supply bottlenecks.” This exacerbates the shortage of skilled workers and material, while interest rates and energy costs for tenants and landlords rise at the same time.
The general manager of the construction industry association, Tim-Oliver Müller, like Gedaschko, sees the federal government’s housing construction target in danger. In the meantime, one must even assume that there could be a decline in new residential construction and ultimately also in the construction industry as a whole. The Central Real Estate Committee (ZIA) called for bold political steps: “We need a regulatory freeze and the suspension of time-consuming approval procedures,” it said.
Geywitz emphasized that everyone must now pull together. “We also need the support of the construction industry, which has to significantly expand its capacities but is under pressure due to rising construction costs and material shortages,” she told the German Press Agency.
Common goal
The members of the alliance should all dedicate themselves to the common housing construction goal – but also work out drafts for public subsidies. What conditions for climate protection must new buildings and conversions meet in order to receive government funding? And how do you ensure that all the approved apartments are actually built in a timely manner? According to Geywitz, almost 800,000 apartments have been approved but not yet built. Sometimes obstacles in the planning made it difficult to condense in the stock, said the minister. For example, the question of whether we still have to provide as many car parking spaces in the city as we used to. “I think no.”
According to their ideas, new apartments should be created primarily in the metropolitan areas, but less through new building areas. Instead, vacant lots are to be filled, houses increased and commercial buildings converted into apartments. Overall, Germany’s cities are to become denser.
The Union’s housing expert, Jan-Marco Luczak, criticized the alliance’s lack of proposals for a solution. “However, formulating goals that are broadly accepted is not yet politics,” he stressed. “The construction minister threatens to get tangled up in ideology and theoretical debates on the first few meters. This means we lose valuable time until something actually arrives at the construction site.” Caren Lay from the Left faction complained that expensive luxury and condominiums did not solve the problem of affordable housing. Instead, she suggested that only social housing should be built in inner cities with a tight housing market.
DGB board member Stefan Körzell also sees a focus on affordable, publicly funded housing. Households with medium and low incomes in particular need such apartments. The federal government must also protect tenants from displacement and rent increases. He suggested about a six-year rent freeze. The federal government’s commissioner for people with disabilities, Jürgen Dusel, pointed out a particular shortage of barrier-free apartments. A clear commitment from all actors, not just politicians, is needed here. “Planning accessibility from the start is a question of quality, professionalism and sustainability,” he emphasized. “Only barrier-free housing deserves the name social housing.”
Source: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
