The prices for energy and also for construction are rising, and inflation is added to this. For many landlords, this makes investments in apartments uneconomical. That has consequences.
Magdeburg (dpa/sa) – The housing industry in Saxony-Anhalt (VdW) warns of the consequences of declining investments in housing construction. “If we don’t invest further in the stocks, if we don’t prepare them energetically, if we don’t make them barrier-free, then that promotes segregation,” said VdW Managing Director Jens Zillmann of the German Press Agency. As a result, low-income sections of the population would be pushed into quarters where they could still be rented out economically for a lower rent.
Housing is a social good, but also an economic good, said Zillmann. That’s pretty much out of balance. “And any investment that cannot be refinanced through rent over a certain period of time will not take place from a commercial point of view.” A nationwide survey of over 350 member companies in the housing industry has shown that almost 80 percent of the companies have stopped new building measures immediately, said Zillmann, who is also on the federal board of the housing industry (GdW). “We’re finishing what’s started and reducing investments to the bare minimum.”
The problem is the large number of overlapping crises, according to Zillmann. “On the one hand the energy price explosion, on the other hand the construction cost explosion, which is not tradable. And that coupled with a general inflationary situation in our economy, which in turn has led to a rapid rise in interest rates,” said the VdW boss.
