The Association of Bavarian Housing Companies (VdW) sounds the alarm. Many people will soon no longer be able to afford the exploding energy prices, VdW director Hans Maier warned in Munich on Thursday. Germany therefore needs a gas price cap immediately in order to save tens of thousands of tenants and numerous socially oriented housing companies from ruin. Such is the only effective solution for the housing industry, since price increases do not even reach people.
“The rent including heating for our tenants will have to increase by an average of 25 percent due to the current energy prices. But that’s just the beginning,” said Maier. Between January and July 2022 alone, German households had to spend an average of 850 euros more on energy than in the whole of 2021. The next heating period has not yet started. If no gas price cap is introduced, households in 2022 would have to spend an average of between 1360 euros in the best case and up to 3800 euros more for energy than in 2021.
“The tenants in the socially oriented housing companies, the housing cooperatives, municipal and church housing companies are particularly affected,” explained the association director. For these companies, payment defaults also pose a threat to their own liquidity. “The latest peak value for a member of the association is almost 47 cents per kilowatt hour. In practice, this means that the advance payment for the apartment, which has previously been 50 euros per month, must then be increased to 750 euros. The tenants of socially oriented tenants can do that housing companies can’t afford,” said Maier.
The VdW boss pointed out that many other European countries had already introduced a gas price cap. This must be collected at a level that offers incentives for economical use of energy, but prevents social upheaval and indirectly lowers the price of electricity. “So far, the root of the problem has not been tackled,” criticizes Maier.
According to the VdW Bayern, 493 socially oriented Bavarian housing companies are associated – including 355 housing cooperatives and 104 municipal housing companies, including church ones. The member companies manage around 540,000 apartments, in which a fifth of all Bavarian tenants live.