According to industry associations, the problems on the housing market will continue to worsen this year. In total, there will be around 700,000 fewer apartments in 2023, said an alliance of tenants’ associations, building trade unions and social organizations on Thursday in Berlin. Drastic measures are needed to avert a collapse on the rental market: the alliance called for a special fund to promote housing construction – similar to the special fund for better equipment for the German armed forces. So that no crisis occurs, you need 50 billion euros. The situation is dramatic.
The housing shortage is above all a lack of affordable housing, said tenants’ association boss Lukas Siebenkotten. Especially for people who have little money at their disposal, it is difficult if not impossible to find suitable offers on the housing market. The alliance assessed the situation in social housing as particularly precarious: around eleven million tenant households in Germany are actually entitled to subsidized housing – however, there are only around 1.1 million social apartments left.
According to the alliance, around 400,000 apartments would have to be built every year in order to remedy the shortage, including 100,000 social housing units. This actually corresponds to the plans of the federal government – however, last year it clearly missed this goal. According to industry estimates, only around 250,000 new apartments will have been built in 2022; official figures are not yet available.
In order to boost new construction, the alliance is also calling for a reduction in value added tax for social housing from 19 to seven percent in addition to the special fund. In addition, it must be possible to build more cheaply: due to numerous environmental regulations, it is difficult to create living space that can be rented out for less than 23 euros per square meter. Normal earners simply could not pay these rents.