The traffic light aims to build 400,000 apartments per year. In the first year of the legislature, she did not succeed in doing this, as Minister of Building Geywitz concedes and refers to the difficult general conditions. However, the construction industry had recently given little hope of rising numbers.
The traffic light will miss its self-imposed target of 400,000 new apartments per year this year. “Indeed, we will not reach 400,000 this year,” said Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz during the government survey in front of the Bundestag. “The general conditions are difficult.” It’s about expanding capacity. Even in the previous year, when there was no war, interest rates were historically low and “a lot of money was put into the promotion of new construction,” Horst Seehofer, then Minister of Construction, missed the new construction target of 375,000 apartments with fewer than 300,000 apartments been.
“That’s why I don’t assume that this year, with the significantly more difficult framework conditions, there will be a sudden increase of 25 percent in construction capacities,” said the SPD politician. The construction industry has been pointing out for months that the number of completed apartments will not increase, but will decrease significantly. According to estimates by the construction industry, there will be 280,000 apartments this year and only around 245,000 in the coming year.
Meanwhile, there is no agreement in the federal government on Geywitz’ plans to strengthen the municipal right of first refusal on the housing market. In April, she submitted a draft law to the departmental vote, she said. “There is significant demand from the Justice Department in particular.” When an agreement will be reached within the coalition “I cannot estimate”. But she sees a need for legal regulation there.
The minister’s draft envisages giving cities and communities in so-called milieu protection areas a comprehensive right of first refusal to protect tenants from luxury renovations when selling apartments, for example. The impetus for this was provided by a ruling by the Federal Administrative Court in November 2022. This had stopped the previous practice in many communities of using the right of first refusal to protect residents of an apartment building from eviction or drastic rent increases. The FDP has concerns about the interference with property rights.
Finally, the minister assured that new rules would come about in favor of inexpensive housing for the coming year. “Next year we will continue with the social aspect of housing, with the creation of a concept for non-profit housing,” she said. It is wanted that permanently socially bound apartments are on the market. Such rules had previously been used to promote housing companies that kept their apartments cheap over the long term. Unlike before, there is only one instead of three million social housing in Germany, she said. An action plan to combat homelessness is also planned, which should support local and state governments.
The head of department was “optimistic” that the new maximum rates for housing benefit could be paid out in many municipalities in January. Most recently, many municipalities had warned of difficulties with housing benefits due to staff shortages in the offices.
