Türkenstraße, Schellingstraße, Josephsplatz: The list of locations in Maxvorstadt where tenants are threatened with being evicted from their apartments due to real estate speculation or where a conversion into expensive luxury condominiums has already taken place could be extended indefinitely. The district has been hit harder than almost any other by the rampant spiral of gentrification – from the district’s political point of view it’s a “sell-out” of the quarter, which the planning department now wants to put a further stop to.
At the end of May, the authority intends to propose to the city council’s planning committee that the previous conservation statute areas “Maxvorstadt” and “Josephsplatz” be integrated into a larger “Maxvorstadt/Josephsplatz” area. Around 13,000 more residents than before are to be protected from displacement in this way, including for the first time tenants on Görresstrasse and Schwindstrasse and in parts of Schleißheimer, Schellingstrasse, Lothstrasse, Winzererstrasse, Augustenstrasse, Luisenstrasse, Arcisstrasse and Theresienstrasse.
The city planners argue that the proportion of private rental housing stock that can arouse the interest of investors and be upgraded by them is high in this area at 52.3 percent. For comparison: In the city as a whole, the value is 27.4 percent. In addition, more can be demanded than before in the case of re-letting – even if the average prices are already above the rental level within the Mittlerer Ring. Because the average height in the entire district is even higher.
The area is popular, the proximity to the universities guarantees student flair, the art galleries are not far and there is a wide range of restaurants. In addition, there is the central location and good connections to public transport. Over the past ten years, these bonus points have meant that more than twelve percent of the housing stock has been converted and that certificates of completion have been requested for 6.2 percent of the apartments – as a prerequisite for a sale. Citywide, these numbers are significantly lower.
Critics are already talking about the third wave of gentrification
It became clear as early as the 1970s that Maxvorstadt was an attractive place for investors. At that time, the district experienced the first phase of gentrification. There is now talk of a second or even third “wave”. It manifests itself, among other things, in new construction projects in the luxury segment such as “NY Living” on Nymphenburger Strasse or the eight “Therese” houses on the former Arri Film production site on Theresienstrasse. All the more important, according to the planning department, that the city “can continue to prevent price-driving luxury modernizations and the conversion of rental apartments into condominiums via the reservation of approval in conservation statute areas”.
The Maxvorstadt district committee would have liked the areas to the east of Barer Strasse around Türkenstrasse and Amalienstrasse, as well as the Schönfeldviertel, to have been included in the scope of the preservation statute. But that, according to the authority, cannot be justified. To the east of Barer Strasse, the purchasing power of tenants is too high and the proportion of private property at risk of conversion is too low. And in Schönfeldvorstadt on Queen Street, the proportion of low-income earners is “far below average” and the rents are “already high” if the property is re-let.
Westschwabing’s citizens’ representatives, whose district in a small area north of Georgenstraße between Schleißheimer and Adelheidstraße is also affected by the reorganization, support the indefinite enactment of such a new preservation statute. The vote is still pending for their colleagues from Maxvorstadt.