Landsberg gets a housing association

Created: 09/30/2022, 14:47

By: Ulrike Osman

The assisted living of the city of Landsberg am Englischen Garten will be one of the properties that the city will transfer to the municipal housing association.

© Greiner

Landsberg – The city gets a municipal housing association.

In its most recent meeting, the city council approved the foundation with a large majority.

The company is to manage the existing housing stock and construct new buildings.

The city council had two options to choose from.

The main difference between the two was that in one case 182 municipal dwellings were incorporated into the company, in the other they were not.

Mayor Doris Baumgartl (UBV) spoke out clearly in favor of the first variant.

This is “much cheaper” because rental income would flow into the company immediately, which it could use to finance new buildings.

In the other case - the company only builds new, the housing stock remains with the city - two plots of land and the equity required for the building project would have been invested.

In this case, however, a construct would have emerged that “permanently depends on the city’s drip and is therefore dependent on political majorities,” warned the town hall boss. The majority joined the big solution preferred by Baumgartl.

Martin Unterrainer from the Association of Bavarian Housing Companies (VdW) also recommended this variant.

This achieves “a bundling of the real estate on one legal entity”,

The 182 apartments on eleven plots with an approximate value of 52 million euros will be brought into the company on January 1, 2023.

In return, the city receives shares in the GmbH & Co. KG (the chosen legal form of the company).

The company will assume existing loans of around EUR 1.8 million.

In terms of new construction projects, twelve apartments are planned to be built on Katharinenstrasse by mid-2025 and 55 apartments on Wiesengrund by 2028.

The necessary plots of land and any additional equity capital that may be required will be contributed to the company by the city.

In the factual presentation, it was also said that renovation measures should be postponed to the years after the new building.

This was criticized by Ulrike Gömmer (Greens) - she sees the housing association as primarily responsible for renovating the old building.

In their eyes, climate protection and high energy costs make this task a priority.

Christian Hettmer (CSU) spoke out against a transfer of the housing stock, as this would be associated with high costs.

And unlike Gömmer, he thought it feasible for the city to renovate the apartments itself.

Since the majority for the large solution was foreseeable, Hettmer demanded that, in the interest of transparency, separate booking cycles be created for new buildings and old stock and that the costs of running the business be shown separately.

The founding of the housing association and the contribution of the municipal housing stock were decided with four and five dissenting votes.