Living - What is to change in construction in Lower Saxony
Building in Lower Saxony is to be simplified with a number of changes. The law amending the relevant building regulations is to be passed by the state parliament by the summer of next year, as announced by the Ministry of Construction in Hanover on Tuesday. The state government sees the housing market under pressure due to rising prices, interest rates, a shortage of skilled workers and supply difficulties. The amendment to the law is intended to make building easier, faster and therefore cheaper.
The demand for housing is also high in Lower Saxony. The housing market report presented in November showed that almost 237,000 additional homes will be needed in Lower Saxony by 2040. Building Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) said on Tuesday that we need to rethink both new construction and the conversion of existing properties. "With this package of simplifications, we are tackling what we have in hand at state level to make new construction and conversion easier," the minister emphasized.
According to the Ministry of Construction, a core element of the amendment to the law is the simplification of conversion measures. For example, anyone who wants to extend the attic of a house or add a storey to a residential building should be able to do so more easily according to the plans. For example, owners will no longer have to install an elevator when extending a house by up to two storeys.
According to the ministry, new ceilings, walls, stairs and soundproofing will only have to meet the standard of the year the property was built. At present, these must comply with the current standard.
When residential buildings are constructed, the obligation for car parking spaces is to be dropped. However, there is to be an obligation for bicycle parking facilities for residential buildings. When asked whether the abolition of mandatory car parking spaces would mean more cars parked on the streets, Lies said that he did not see the problem, especially in rural areas.
According to a forecast, the number of newly built apartments in the state will halve to 17,000 by 2024 compared to 2022. For 2023, 25,400 new apartments are still expected to be completed, according to the recently presented housing market report. The estimate is based on the number of building permits issued in previous years. According to the State Statistical Office, almost 29,500 new apartments were completed in the state in 2022 - around eight percent more than a year earlier.
Other plans by the state government include reducing the boundary distances for new builds. The regulations for small houses, so-called mobile tiny houses, are also to be improved. The aim here is to make it easier to move these houses to other locations.
Heiko Sachtleben, construction policy spokesperson for the Green parliamentary group, said: "In future, the simplified rule should apply that no building has to meet more requirements after conversion than before conversion. After years in which the number of requirements for residential construction has steadily increased, this is tantamount to a paradigm shift."
Marcel Scharrelmann, economic policy spokesperson for the CDU parliamentary group, criticized that the planned changes were not sufficient to meet the demand for additional housing. Targeted measures are needed to motivate private capital and companies to invest more in housing, said the opposition politician.
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Source: www.stern.de
