In the coming years, Volkswagen will build hundreds of employee apartments at its headquarters in Wolfsburg. 145 apartments are to be created this year. Next year another 162 - all on VW's own space.
In 2013, the Group subsidiary Volkswagen Immobilien started its own new housing program. Together with the city, around 550 new apartments will be built by 2023, mainly for company employees.
With employee housing, VW is increasing its attractiveness in the race for talent, said Meno Requardt, Managing Director of Volkswagen Immobilien. The car manufacturer offers employees living space on the narrow real estate market Wolfsburg and also support professionals who did not want to buy the same property.
The VW real estate subsidiary leases more than 9300 apartments in Wolfsburg, mainly to Group employees. "Every year we have a budget of 15 to 20 million euros for the new building and 20 million euros for our existing apartments," said Requardt.
Employee housing is in the trend in many cities in view of the housing shortage. BASF and Deutsche Bahn, but also SMEs and municipal companies rely on apartments for their employees. The Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies (GdW) estimates the number of employee apartments at almost 100,000 nationwide. He sees in the initiatives of companies a chance to reduce housing shortages in cities. Compared to around 42 million apartments in Germany, employee housing accounts for only a fraction of the market.
