Despite massive demand: every sixth federally owned apartment is empty

Many properties owned by the federal government are uninhabited – sometimes for years. The reasons include inadequate building fabric and massive renovation residues.

The number of federally owned apartments that are vacant has reached a new high: 6,455 of the approximately 38,000 residential units in the portfolio of the Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks (BImA) were unused on March 31, 2022. This corresponds to a total area of ​​more than one million square meters.

The figures come from a response from the federal government to a written question by Left Party member of the Bundestag Caren Lay, who NDR political magazine Panorama 3 present. This means that every sixth federally owned apartment is now empty. The vacancy rate in North Rhine-Westphalia is particularly striking, with 2,204 unused residential units.

Significant increase

The vacancy rate at the BImA has almost doubled in the past year and a half. On October 31, 2020, 3,260 of the then around 35,800 federally owned apartments were still unused. The overall vacancy rate rose from 9.1 percent to 17.0 percent.

“The sharp increase in vacancies in federally owned properties is unacceptable, given the housing shortage and skyrocketing rents in recent years,” said Caren Lay, spokeswoman for housing policy for the left-wing faction. The fact that every sixth BImA apartment is empty is a real scandal.

BlmA: Many apartments cannot be rented

At the request of Panorama 3 the BImA confirmed the vacancy rate. However, this is only mathematically correct because it ignores important reference values. So you have to deduct the apartments that are in the BImA sales portfolio.

Then only 12.5 percent of all apartments from the portfolio remained, which the BImA would like to rent out as quickly as possible, “but currently cannot do so for various important reasons,” the institution said: “These apartments either have significant defects, have a major need for renovation or cannot yet be used because, for example, the necessary planning rights are missing.” The vacancy rate for rentable apartments is only 2.9 percent.

Apparently a refurbishment backlog

To Panorama 3-There is research in Hamburg, for example, on BImA houses that have been unused for more than four years and are waiting to be renovated. “More and more people are unable to find a home. In addition, there are now refugees from the Ukraine. Vacant apartments must be given immediately,” demands left-wing politician Lay. In addition, the conversion of offices and other properties into apartments must be urgently tackled in order to create new living space

According to the federal government, the BImA recorded a total of more than five million square meters of vacant buildings as of the reporting date; In addition to living space, this primarily includes office space with around 1.5 million square meters and other types of use such as service and storage areas with a total of around 2.9 million square meters.

The BImA announced that it has currently made more than 58,000 accommodation places rent-free available to the federal states, districts and municipalities for the accommodation of asylum seekers and refugees. Of these, more than 29,000 places are currently occupied.