Rent increases – City of Potsdam: New construction alone cannot alleviate the housing shortage
dpa/S.Stache
Audio: rbb24 Inforadio | 08/03/2023 | Rafael Knop | Image: dpa/S.Stache
In Berlin, the housing shortage has long been legendary – in the meantime, however, people in Potsdam are also vying for the far too few vacant apartments. The city administration relies on quick solutions – and criticizes the Federal Minister for Construction.
From the point of view of the city of Potsdam, new construction is not enough to create sufficient affordable living space. That is only part of the solution, said the responsible department head in the Potsdam city administration, Gregor Jekel, on Thursday on rbb24 Inforadio.
The Potsdam department head also criticized in this context Plans by Federal Building Minister Geywitz [tagesschau.de]. Accordingly, there should be tax incentives in the construction industry. However, that would only benefit private builders and not the municipal companies, according to Jekel. If construction takes place, subsidized housing must be used.
rbb/Linh Tran
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Jekel: Building is becoming too expensive for refinancing
Jekel assumes that “significantly less” will be built in the future. Building is becoming more and more expensive – now the costs for financing via loans are also increasing, said Jekel. All of this meant that building would become so expensive that housing would no longer be affordable afterwards.
“If there is construction and afterwards rents of 20 euros (per square meter) are necessary to refinance the construction costs, then I don’t think that that will help the housing market as a whole,” says Jekel. The builders would also know that – “they think to themselves, ‘We can’t place that on the market anyway'”, Jekel continues. Therefore, construction projects would be postponed.
Trump card “Potsdam Bonus”
In order to get momentum in the housing market in the short term, Jekel suggested that there should be more control over who moves into the new apartments. So there is the so-called “Potsdam bonus” with the municipal housing companies: those who are already looking for a home in Potsdam have a slightly better chance of getting a chance – especially since more apartments in Potsdam would then become available, according to Jekel.
Berlin: Wegner wants a residence entitlement certificate for more tenants
The Governing Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner (CDU), also wants to expand the possibilities of getting housing at short notice. Around 80 percent of those looking for an apartment in Berlin have little chance of finding an affordable apartment, Wegner told the editorial network Germany (RND).
He underlined the plans of the black-red coalition to issue a housing entitlement certificate (WBS) for more people looking for housing. So far, only people with little money have had the opportunity to get cheap apartments with a WBS – for the “broad mass” the prospects are bad, however, according to Wegner.
He announced that the housing entitlement certificate would be extended so that average earners could also find affordable housing in the capital. “I will not allow a saleswoman or a police officer to have to move to Brandenburg because they can no longer afford the city in which and for which they work,” said Wegner.
However, there are already many more households in Berlin that are entitled to a housing entitlement certificate than social housing. As information from the federal government recently showed, The number of social housing in Berlin has recently fallen again.
Broadcast: rbb24 Inforadio, 8/3/23, 9:20 a.m