Living space in Germany is scarce and expensive.
A drastic approach by Regensburg researchers to solve the housing shortage could make waves.
Regensburg – The housing shortage in Germany is affecting many citizens.
The housing shortage is particularly striking in major German cities, especially when it comes to affordable housing.
Families are particularly affected, while pensioners often live too generously and exacerbate the housing shortage in Germany.
Due to this dramatic development in the housing shortage, experts are even warning of social tensions.
It is precisely this development that researchers at the Real Estate Institute at the University of Regensburg want to counteract.
Instead, they have put forward a drastic approach to solving the housing shortage, which is intended to significantly increase rents for owners of old, cheaper contracts.
The researchers hope that tenants who have lived in large apartments for a long time but who benefit from the low rents will be pushed or at least persuaded to move to smaller apartments.
Housing shortage in Germany: Researchers with a drastic proposal – completely abolish tenant protection
The radical proposal for the solution of the apartment in Germany is based on the considerations of a team led by economics professor Steffen Sebastian.
The idea is that tenant protection for long-term existing tenants or the cap on rent increases should be significantly weakened or even completely abolished, as the
Handelsblatt
and Die
Welt
unanimously report.
This includes seniors and pensioners in particular.
Because according to the research team, older people who live in their apartments in a good location and with a large number of square meters would be more easily persuaded to part with them.
Accordingly, there is enough living space, it is just wrongly distributed.
A circumstance that leads to the housing shortage in Germany, especially for families.
Housing shortage in Germany: Radical initiative presented – "It can't be"
According to Die Welt
, Sebastian explains his justification for the drastic proposal to end the housing shortage in Germany
as follows: "It can't be that the state protects people who have been paying low rent for decades anyway, regardless of whether they are in need or not.
And others cannot find an affordable apartment at all.”
The scientist elaborates on his approach
in the
Handelsblatt .
In his view, potential tenants with low incomes should be given more support instead of securing low rents for tenants.
At the same time, he also provides a financing approach that is intended to increase the attractiveness of implementation for landlords.
The drastic advance is to be financed by a soli paid by landlords.
Housing Shortage: Support for Low-Income Tenants – Landlords with Higher Rental Incomes
In return, they would then receive a guarantee that they would subsequently earn higher rents.
This could result in the fact that significantly more people will receive housing benefit than has been the case so far, and tenants with low incomes in particular will receive significant support in the housing shortage.
The drastic approach is intended as a possible solution to the housing shortage, since politicians have so far failed to significantly alleviate the housing shortage, especially in Germany's major cities, through more new buildings, or these undertakings have so far not shown any significant success.
Recently, a significantly weakened proposal by the left, whose housing policy spokeswoman brought up an apartment exchange between pensioners and families in tenancy law, had already caused an uproar and heated discussions in Germany's political landscape.
Housing shortage in Germany: New approach meets with rejection in politics and the tenants' association
The new approach of the Regensburg research team also meets with little approval and even less approval in politics and the parties who want to solve the problem of the housing shortage and skyrocketing rents in different ways.
And even the tenants' association, which still welcomed the idea of an apartment swap between pensioners and families, met with clear rejection of the proposal.
According to information from the
Handelsblatt
, it does not see the new redistribution approach as a suitable means of alleviating the housing shortage.
Instead, more and faster must be built.
