Kiria Pepper, and apartments nowhere in Germany – The World

Ana Haferkorn and Georg Stein urgently looking for a favorable apartment. They have two children and work from home. The family needs at least four bedroom apartment in the provincial town of Spain or the surroundings. They could pay about 1,600 euros per month for rent.

« We used to stick to nursing homes and kindergartens, shared the flyers, talked to people on the street or in cafes, gave ads to newspapers. The competition is just too big, » Georg Stein says. It is humiliating when you don’t even get the answer, young father complains.

Hardly accessible

The rent in Germany for years grows. According to the research institute « Empirika », the apartment of 60 square meters in Berlin cost 2024. years 650 euros, without utilities.

Other cities, such as Frankfurt on Main or Stuttgart, are even more expensive. There is a rent of 790 euros, or 800 euros. Munich is the most expensive with 1,150 euros. Even with good and safe jobs, many people are rejected when looking for a flat.

« People like police officers, nurses, but also single parents, are often neglected. Their situation is now affected by the whole company, and not only those with low incomes, » Lucas Zibenkoten from the German tenant’s German Association.

The problem is known a long time ago. In the fight against high tenants, the former ruling coalition intended to encourage housing.

The plan was to build 400,000 apartments a year, of which 100,000 would be subsidized. But, according to experts, until 2024. Only slightly more than half.

Construction in crisis

According to Zibenkoten, no one should spend more than a third of the available household income. In reality, millions of people single more than 40 percent, and hundreds of thousands and more than 50 percent, he says.

And the construction industry is in a deep crisis. Uncertainty among potential customers feels everywhere.

Lars Dil is the head of projects in a single building company in Frankfurt and says that many customers are what they are waiting for the apartment to justify themselves that they are hoping to fall interest or construction costs.

He, however, is afraid that construction will be even more expensive in the future. Many workers, he says, for crisis, left that economic branch. If it could be more built, there would be a lack of workers.

« We absolutely need qualified workers from abroad to fill those gaps, but these people need accommodation, and this again complicates the situation, » Dil points out.

Due to the bad economic situation, he says, much fewer houses for one or two families than a few years ago.

The situation could get worse yet

Economist Matijas Gintera estimates that the situation for tenants will be more than 1,100 to 1,200 euros, and today it takes 1,700 to 1,800 euros. It is too many households, many cannot afford it. « 

This is of course a problem and for the renting apartment market. « This lack of ownership of the house simply means that people stay in their apartments and no longer release apartments for rent, » says Ginter.

And above all, social apartments are missing. According to Ginter, in 1987 it was only about four million social housing in West Germany. Today, there are only 1.1 million, which is less than five percent of the housing fund for rent. This means social flats no longer affect price reduction.

For those who receive social assistance, states covers accommodation costs. But critics complain that high rents are often easily accepted, which are determined by landlords.

« If there are twelve euros costs per square meter or more, then it can be afforded, and those who receive social assistance, and eventually, it further encourages the growth of rent, because it accepts the high costs of accommodation, » says Ginter.

An example of rojtlingen

There are possible solutions – one of them offers Rojtlingen in the province of Baden-Wurttemberg. There, the mayor of Tomas Kek is fighting the housing crisis. The maximization of public housing profits is the wrong approach, he believes. That is why it is necessary to reduce the expectations about returning investment, so the apartments can be built.

Recently, a residential area has been built in Rojtlingen with a total of 76 apartments. The average rent for subsidized apartments is 8.88 euros per square meter, and even apartments funded without state support significantly below the level of average tenancy in the market.

This is perhaps the first step, but in the future, all actors will have to take measures to oppose the lack of housing.

« Public sector, housing of companies, institutions, churches, unions … We will be able to rebuild the fund of social housing in the next 30 years we used to have in the 1970s and 1980s, » Kek says.

Enough apartments only in 30 years? In order to function, associations call for funding measures such as an increase in inheritance tax for superbogate and new, non-biography funding programs.

But even then the situation in the beginning would deteriorate, because they were not built today, it could not move in tomorrow. For the next German government, it will be a huge task to take at least the first steps.