Finding affordable housing in the inner city of Munich is often like playing the lottery – the offers are too rare. And it is even rarer for a whole series of such apartments to be built in a large area. Especially in the popular Schwabing district.
In this respect, what is to be built in the coming years in the creative quarter near Leonrodplatz is quite special. On the “creative field”, one of four sub-areas of the creative quarter, the municipal housing company Münchner Wohnen and three cooperatives want to build a wooden housing estate with around 340 apartments. This is possible because the city has granted the building plots on a leasehold basis for 80 years at extremely reasonable prices – measured against the market value. A further 30 or so apartments are to be found in a high-rise building on the other side of Heßstrasse, directly adjacent to the creative laboratory, a second sub-area of the creative quarter.
Munich Housing wants to provide the lion’s share of the housing. The municipal subsidiary is building 184 apartments on the site between Heß-, Frei-Otto- and Günter-Behnisch-Straße. The entire range from single apartments to six-room apartments – “because,” as Mayor Verena Dietl (SPD) explained at the groundbreaking ceremony, “we also need large family apartments.” An assessment shared by the district committee chairwoman responsible for western Schwabing. “Schwabing-West is the most densely populated district of the city, we are struggling with certificates of closure and tenant evictions,” confirms Gesa Tiedemann (Greens). “That makes people all the more grateful” for this housing initiative.
Munich Housing is investing 91 million euros in the project. Half of the municipal apartments are subsidized on an income basis, another quarter are rented out according to the Munich model, and the rest are privately financed housing. Alternative housing concepts are also planned: caring house communities, for example, or an outpatient residential community. There will also be space for a neighborhood meeting place on the ground floor, intended as a contact point for the entire district.
The project is also sustainable in terms of energy. All residential blocks are designed in such a way, emphasized project manager Aristoteles Shomper at the symbolic start of construction, that they will only have “40 percent of the primary energy consumption of a normal house.” Thanks to a core made of reinforced concrete and a shell made of wood, for example.
In addition to the primary school on Infanteriestrasse, which is already in operation and is also part of the six-hectare area of the creative field, a large gravel landscape still dominates the site. But the first excavators for the Münchner Wohnen construction project are due to arrive in September. The first residents should then be able to move in at the beginning of 2027.
The Postbaugenossenschaft began construction a year ago. It is building 56 apartments on the field, including a guest apartment, a large common room in the basement and a green courtyard as a meeting place for everyone in the settlement, and it hopes to be finished in a year. The Postbaugenossenschaft originally wanted to build together with the Wabe Zwo cooperative, but due to the increased construction costs and interest, Wabe Zwo was forced to withdraw. “But the know-how has been incorporated,” says Ulrich Brüggerhoff, board member of the Postbaugenossenschaft.
The rental housing syndicate and Euroboden have failed
The rental housing syndicate and Stefan Höglmaier and his company Euroboden have also dropped out due to cost reasons as a result of the dramatic price development in the construction industry. The young cooperatives “Wohnt Urban” and “Stadtimpuls” are now taking their place. “Wohnt Urban” wants to build 35 apartments, and the start date is set for the middle of next year. Chairman Sebastian Hock stresses that “without the extensive voluntary commitment and willingness to take risks of the members, and without a restriction to essential housing qualities, implementation at the current construction costs and interest rates would not be possible.” The funding programs and subsidies from the city, the Free State of Bavaria and the federal government are “a necessary addition and should be urgently continued in order to secure affordable housing in Munich.” The municipality alone has been helping property developers with 270 million euros for a good year to offset the increase in construction costs and interest rates.
“Stadtimpuls”, on the other hand, plans to offer housing specifically for occupations where there is a shortage of staff and hospital employees, but still has to wait for the final formal go-ahead. The cooperative is taking over the property from Euroboden. “In three to four months we will know whether it will work,” says board member Michael Port.
What they all have in common is close cooperation in the planning of the settlement. Important aspects such as communal areas, paths, waste disposal or the location of the fire brigade access roads, but also facade structures, play islands, courtyards, mobility options and ground floor uses have been coordinated with each other for a long time. This is called a consortium process. This is also a novelty, implemented for the first time in the creative field by Münchner Wohnen, who is taking the lead in this process.