The dilemma, as Hans Maier calls it, is documented on slide 21. For its annual press conference, the Association of the Housing Industry (VdW) Bayern put together a package of statistics and graphics on Monday: sometimes the graphs go down, sometimes they go up, but they go particularly steeply on page 21. The building costs have increased by around 80 percent since 2000 more expensive – with consequences for building owners and residents alike. “If we have high construction costs, we have to pass them on to our tenants,” says association director Maier. Even those who do not rely on profit maximization are forced to refinance the increases according to the “usual calculations”. “That’s the dilemma.”
People in metropolitan areas in particular feel in their wallets that the prices for residential property are rising and rising in Bavaria. According to experts, there are many reasons for this: rising land prices, speculation or that the supply of living space often lags behind demand. But also: high costs for building itself.
Mainly cooperative and municipal housing companies are organized in the VdW. Together they own 468,000 apartments in the Free State, a good quarter of which are publicly funded. Nevertheless, many companies are apparently finding it increasingly difficult to actually offer affordable housing. This is also due to the fact that the cost of building grew recently, but the funding sums did not. According to VdW, the Free State provided 548 million euros for housing subsidies last year, just as much as in 2019 and 2018. The federal funds for Bavaria even fell, from 886 in 2019 to 848 million euros in 2020. This is targeted by the state government The goal of 70,000 new apartments per year has still not been achieved, says Maier. For 2020, the statistics show 64 013 construction completions.
On the other hand, the demand for affordable living space remains high. In Augsburg, more than 6,000 households are on the waiting list for subsidized and cooperative housing. In Ingolstadt there are 2400, in Kempten 1527. Maier sees the question of affordable housing as “socially explosive”. He is not alone in this, the state government also wants to create more affordable housing. A reformed building code has been expected to bring additional speed since February: If the authorities do not respond to a building application within three months, it is considered approved. The new building regulations also provide for one or two simplifications, for example when expanding attic storeys or building with wood. This changes little in the overall complexity of building – and little in the prices that are now due for residential property. According to a report by the upper committee of experts for property values, prices continued to rise in many places despite the corona crisis. According to this, private homes in Regensburg were resold for a median of 650,000 euros at the end of 2020, a good 100,000 euros more than a year earlier. Accordingly, the discussion continues in the industry as to how building could be made simpler, cheaper and still climate friendly; about how complex government regulations should be. The strict requirements for fire and noise protection must then usually serve as a deterrent example.
In fact, building is also easier, as the view of Bad Aibling in Upper Bavaria shows. There are three model houses from the Technical University of Munich, one made of wood, one made of brick and one made of lightweight concrete. It was planned by the architect and TU professor Florian Nagler. For him, the “Simply Build” project is about avoiding unnecessary effort and using uncomplicated, sometimes well-known methods, to design contemporary, energy-saving and climate-friendly buildings. Nagler and his colleagues and students do without too much technology such as ventilation systems, underfloor heating and the like, which makes building complex, tedious and expensive. There are simple, gently sloping gable roofs, clear facades with partly arched window openings that, like the ancient Romans, are statically self-supporting and without steel lintels. It should also work without expensive insulation made of any composite material that is difficult to obtain and just as difficult to dispose of again.
Including the energy consumption for the production, these houses – calculated over a service life of 100 years – should nevertheless be more economical and climate-friendly than what is nowadays built as plus-energy houses, sometimes with enormous technical effort. Plain and simple windows provide enough light. Comparatively lush room heights keep you cool in summer and reduce the need for ventilation in winter with a corresponding loss of heat. The complex technology in each of the three-story buildings in Bad Aibling is mainly due to their experimental character: What they can really do in the long term, sensors should record exactly. They also meet the numerous building regulations with little effort.
“We don’t always need the latest norm,” says Maier, head of the association: You have to be careful not to overstep the specifications. The VdW wants to discuss how cheaper, affordable living space can be created at a conference on Wednesday. Among other things, a “brake on building costs” is required. In the future, political decisions should also be examined for their influence on construction costs. If the rise in costs generally continues like this, says Maier, “at some point new buildings will no longer be possible for housing companies”.