Real estate prices in the district of Munich have been rising for years, and whenever a new high for the prices of apartments and houses is published, along with Graefelfing and Grünwald, the municipality of Oberhaching is right at the top of the scale of the most expensive living space. People from Oberhaching who are looking for a new place to stay in their own town can often no longer afford it, even with a medium or very good income. With the new development area for locals, the municipality has created affordable living space on an area of 17,500 square meters on the Neuen Weg; the last construction phase with 24 rental apartments was completed this December. The next residential project is already being planned between Grünwalder Weg and Linienstraße. But it is not that easy these days under the new EU law.
There were too few applicants for the originally planned terraced and semi-detached houses
The development plan originally planned to build 14 semi-detached houses, 19 terraced houses and two apartment buildings and to allocate these using the local model. Six plots of single houses were also sold to the highest bidder so that money could come into the community coffers. But the way the municipal council had envisaged the development and awarding of the building, it didn’t work after all. The procurement guidelines must conform to European law and there are income and asset limits that cannot be reconciled with the high land and building prices in Oberhaching. There were no legitimate buyers for five terraced houses. The community eventually sold them to the highest bidder.
She also moved away from plans to sell the now completed 24 residential units as condominiums to locals. Because according to EU directives, residency may no longer be the main admission criterion for applying for a communally subsidized apartment. Social criteria such as a low income, the number of children or the marital status must also be taken into account. In communities with high settlement pressure such as Oberhaching, there is fear of a flood of applications for such projects. For some years now, the Bavarian Municipal Association has been recommending rental apartments for locals in high-priced areas.
City council members and mayor Stefan Schelle visit the new apartments for locals.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
The building with the 24 apartments was constructed by the Munich-Land construction company. In the houses on the corner of Franz-Josef-Strauss-Strasse and Am Neuen Weg, tenants who have lived in Oberhaching for ten years or worked here for 15 years will move into the two- to four-room apartments. This is what the catalog of criteria prescribes, among other things. The municipality received more than a hundred applications, 76 would have been entitled to be considered at all. The awarding of points was then strictly based on the awarding of points. “It wasn’t easy,” said the Third Mayor Nina Hartmann (Greens) when inspecting the property. All apartments still belong to the municipality, but the tenants should have the option of buying the apartments themselves later. “Because of the warranty period, this is only possible after three years at the earliest,” said Kämmerer Paul Fröhlich, explaining the procedure.
A purchase is made for 15 years of personal use. “We do not want an investment property. We need affordable housing and want to bring people into apartments,” clarified Mayor Stefan Schelle (CSU). The cold rent will cost around twelve euros per square meter. Social housing is not. It shouldn’t be either, because the municipality has had other properties to rent in this segment for 60 years. But the apartments are cheaper than those that are currently available for rent on the open market. According to the IVD Institute, the Society for Real Estate Market Research and Vocational Training, the price per square meter in Oberhaching in spring 2021 for first-time apartments was 18.30 euros.