As of: January 29, 2024, 9:16 a.m
By: Marcel Reich
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The real estate industry sees an urgent need for action to create living space.
Aygül Özkan, general manager of the ZIA, calls for government support.
Kassel – Aygül Özkan, general manager of the Central Real Estate Committee (ZIA), predicts continued strong demand for new apartments in Germany.
“We need a lot more housing for the foreseeable future.
There is no way around it,” she told the “Augsburger Allgemeine” on Monday.
She appealed to the federal states to reduce property transfer taxes and tighten their building regulations in order to stimulate housing construction.
She also advocated government-subsidized loans.
The real estate industry advocates government-subsidized loans.
© Henning Kaiser/dpa
Too few properties due to false expectations of demographic development
Özkan emphasized, “We really have to step on the gas now.
Housing is a basic need – as important as water and bread.”
There is a particular lack of apartments in the mid-price segment - “for the proverbial nurse or police officer who might fall behind when it comes to housing benefit.”
The former Lower Saxony CDU Minister for Social Affairs, Women, Family, Health and Integration suggested resolving this through low-interest loans from the state development bank KfW.
She welcomed the government's provision of two billion euros for two years in this area, “we are very pleased.”
This shows “that the problem has been recognized and the priorities are set correctly”.
When asked why the political parties had not been able to create affordable housing for years, Özkan replied: “Because many people had different expectations of demographic development.” The general assumption was that the population would shrink would.
“The realization that we are getting immigration, i.e. refugees plus the desired labor migration for our economy, has been ignored.”
400,000 new apartments?
“We won’t be able to do it this year either”
However, since 2015, hundreds of thousands of people have come to Germany as refugees.
“They all have to live somewhere,” added the managing director of the ZIA.
“In addition, several hundred thousand workers from all over the world are expected to come here every year to make up for the staff shortages that are noticeable in all sectors.”
In addition, people in Germany live longer and more and more people live alone.
Özkan also commented on the traffic light government's original goal of building 400,000 new apartments annually.
“We won’t be able to do it this year either,” she said.
“Probably not in 2025 either.”
However, she warned against slacking off efforts.
“It is crucial that we stretch ourselves, because every single apartment counts.”
The ZIA, which represents 30 associations and around 37,000 companies in the real estate industry, is the leading association in the real estate industry.