Erschwinglicher Wohnraum, der von der Regierung bereitgestellt wird - Die nordwestlichen Regionen drängen die nationale Verwaltung zu schnellerem Handeln.
In response to the increasing demand for affordable living spaces, the ministers of building and senators from the five northern German states are urging the federal government to take a more active role in providing social housing. "We call for a reliable allocation of funds for social housing and would like the federal government and the states to maintain and expand the current funding system," states the declaration of the authorities from Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Bremen. This is crucial to increase the supply of social housing.
To speed up the construction process, the northern states are advocating for more relaxed regulations. They have already made changes to their building laws. "We need to consider which standards we can and are willing to compromise on," said Lower Saxony's building minister Olaf Lies (SPD). This could potentially reduce the high construction costs that hinder new development.
Reducing restrictions could lower costs
"We should recognize that apartments with lower standards, such as soundproofing, will always be better than no apartments at all," added Susanne Schmitt, representative of the Association of the Housing Industry in Lower Saxony, who attended the summit alongside Lies. The revised building laws will allow for "faster, more efficient, and thus cheaper and more affordable construction," explained Bremen's building senator Özlem Ünsal (SPD). A potential reduction in costs of up to 25% is a realistic outcome with these simplified building standards, according to Schleswig-Holstein's building minister Sabine Sütterlin-Waack (CDU).
Hamburg's building senator Karen Pein aims to reduce costs by a third. "If we can successfully decrease construction expenses collectively, we can continue to meet our new construction and climate protection objectives," commented the SPD politician. Streamlining the building permit process offers another avenue for cost savings, as demonstrated by Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's adoption of an online application system, which saves time, materials, and money, noted the state's building minister Christian Pegel (SPD).
The red-green government initially aimed to create 100,000 new social housing units annually but has failed to meet this target. In total, only about 23,000 social housing units were built the previous year. Simultaneously, many previously social housing units were disqualified from rent caps. As a result, the total number of available social housing units in Germany has decreased by 15,000 to less than 1.1 million.
In terms of possible amendments to rental law, which the federal government agreed to as part of the coalition agreement, the northern ministers called for a regulatory environment that promotes housing development. "The well-being of renters and tenants is important to us. However, incentives for investing in housing construction should remain unhindered," stresses their final declaration. "It is the responsibility of the federal government to implement the necessary changes to rental law as quickly as possible."
The traffic light coalition initially planned changes to rental law in the coalition agreement, in addition to the previously agreed rent cap. However, the FDP has opposed any additional modifications to rental law. "Any further rent-related discussions are harmful to investments in the current construction and interest rate environment," explained Carina Konrad, deputy faction leader in the Bundestag.
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