The decline in Germany's social housing units continues.
In 2023, the number of social housing units in Germany decreased, reaching approximately 1.072 million nationwide. This is roughly 15,300 less compared to the previous year, as stated in a response given by the German government in response to a question posed by the Left Party in the Bundesrat and shared with the German Press Agency.
In the same response, it was mentioned that only 49,430 new social housing units were subsidized throughout the country in 2023. The coalition government, however, had originally aimed to provide 100,000 new units annually, but this goal has not been met due to the fact that many existing social housing units are now exempt from rent control, allowing landlords to raise rental prices.
Caren Lay, the housing policy expert from the Left Party who posed the question, referred to this as a "historic low." She added, "This is a disaster given the uncontrollable rise in rents and the ongoing housing shortage." Furthermore, reported losses of social housing have been increasing: almost 14,000 units were lost in 2022.
The trend differs across the individual federal states. In North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin, Rhineland-Palatinate, Brandenburg, and Lower Saxony, there was a reduction in social housing units with four digits in each case, according to Lay. In contrast, the number of social housing units increased by more than a thousand apartments in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.
The two most populous states in Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria, as well as Berlin and Hamburg, saw the highest amount of social housing units built in 2023. The specific figures were 426,755 in North Rhine-Westphalia, 134,793 in Bavaria, and 99,849 in Berlin.
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Source: www.ntv.de
