Bureaucracy - Building regulations should be cleansed
Experts call for fundamental reform of the Hessian Building Regulation: Prescriptions that prevent, delay or increase the cost of building projects, should be revised or removed. The state government is open to bureaucracy reduction. A commission has been reviewing the reform proposals since mid-year.
"Simplification of the Hessian Building Regulation is a central theme that is currently being worked on intensively," said the Ministry. "The third meeting of the Commission 'Innovation in Construction' is scheduled to take place in the fall, where the focus areas of the amendment will be discussed and worked on."
Goal: Risk prevention
Building regulations serve risk prevention: They should prevent the building from collapsing or catching fire, excessive noise, heat or cold. Over the years, this regulatory framework has grown increasingly complex, but nothing has been removed.
The Hessian Building Regulation (HBO) has 93 paragraphs, but it is only a framework agreement. The details are regulated by "technical implementation provisions" - in Hessen, they occupy 581 pages. In addition, there are requirements from the EU, the federal government, and the municipalities. No one knows the exact number of building regulations, but it is rumored to be 20,000.
"We have to be careful not to strangle ourselves with these increasingly complex regulations," says Martin Kraushaar, CEO of the Chamber of Architects and Urban Planners.
What Practitioners Desire
At the end of 2023, the Chamber surveyed its members to find out what would help build more. At the top of the list: simplification of the Building Regulation and DIN Norms. The proposals rarely aim to completely eliminate something. For example, the suggestion is to reverse the burden of proof: One may deviate from the norm in a specific case if no one disputes that it makes sense.
It is important to the Chamber that the reform does not result in a super-norm that regulates when which rules do not apply, as Kraushaar points out.
How can Building be Simpler, Faster, and Cheaper?
"The path from planning to a finished apartment is often arduous: it's too long, too laborious, and too expensive," says Axel Tausendpfund, Managing Director of the Association of the Southwest German Housing Industry (VdW), which represents around 200 housing companies in Hessen and the southern Rheinland-Pfalz.
Tausendpfund sees three major levers through which construction can be made easier, faster, and cheaper - especially when it comes to adding stories to existing buildings and expanding attics. In densely populated areas, there is a huge potential. In the Rhein-Main-Area alone, up to 240,000 apartments could be built.
Three major levers
Point one: Parking spaces. When adding stories or expanding, up to two parking spaces must be created for each new dwelling. In the city, this often only works with underground garages, but few people have two cars. "We need parking spaces that no one needs," says Tausendpfund. The costs for these add to the rent.
Example two: When someone extends a building, the current requirements for noise and fire protection, as well as accessibility, should not apply to the existing building part. Because if major renovations are required there, it is often so expensive that the projects are abandoned.
Proposal three, according to Tausendpfund, is "good enough is good enough": For example, in terms of sound insulation, the requirements have gone far beyond what is necessary today. Germany builds the thickest floor slabs in all of Europe. This is bad for the CO2 balance and makes building unnecessarily expensive. The HBO should therefore only set minimum standards.
The regional government addressing the issue is "urgently necessary," according to the head of the Chamber of Architects Kraushaar. How they approach it - by bringing in experts - is "cleverly done." The schedule is "ambitious, given that it's a thick file."
Commission members expect the reform to be passed in 2025. Thousandpounds also hopes that "it goes at a high tempo."
Whether it works remains to be seen. Hessian Economy Minister Kaweh Mansoori (SPD) has just separated from his state secretary Lamia Messari-Becker. The engineer had convened the "Innovation in Construction" commission and formulated the goal: "Besides the complete digitalization of building application procedures, the regulations of the Hessian Building Ordinance Law and the technical building standards must be put to the test."
- The HBO, or Hessian Building Regulation, is currently under review by a commission tasked with proposing reforms, especially focused on simplification.
- To build more efficiently, practitioners desire simplification of the HBO and DIN Norms, suggesting a reversal of burden of proof in specific cases to encourage progress without unnecessary regulations.
- In pursuit of making construction simpler, faster, and cheaper, the Association of the Southwest German Housing Industry proposes changes such as reducing parking space requirements and relaxing certain noise and fire protection regulations.
- The European Union, federal government, and municipalities also contribute to the complexity of building regulations in Hessen, potentially numbering as many as 20,000, which experts suggest may be stifling the construction industry.
