Munich (dpa / lby) – Many tenants in Bavaria will have to adjust to significant additional costs next year due to the increase in gas prices. The Association of Bavarian Housing Companies assumes that rents including heating will increase by ten percent on average. The reason for this is that the previous gas supply contracts of many housing companies expire at the end of the year. “At the top, price increases of over 500 percent are reported by member companies,” said association director Hans Maier on Monday, referring to a recent survey among member companies.
Almost 500 housing companies with around 540,000 apartments belong to the association, mostly cooperatives and municipal companies. Compared to the previous member survey in the summer, the gas price for companies has risen by an average of 116 percent within six months from 5.59 cents per kilowatt hour to 12.07 cents, i.e. it has more than doubled.
According to the association, a good third (34 percent) of the housing companies still have cheap old contracts that run until the end of next year. “The high gas prices will gradually reach all tenant households in the Free State,” said Maier.
Regardless of government support through the gas price cap, according to the survey, companies fear that one in eight tenants (13 percent) could fall behind on their monthly payments. According to the director of the association, this in turn will be at the expense of housing construction: “Many planned projects will fall victim to this uncertainty in the new year,” said Maier. The time of record investments in housing construction is over for the socially oriented housing companies.
