As of: February 1, 2024, 5:29 p.m
By: Amy Walker
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Press
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In order to get the construction crisis in the country under control, the traffic light government announced a “construction turbo” in the fall.
However, one aspect of the planned measures is met with criticism across the board.
Berlin – The construction industry is in a construction crisis, and at the same time there is a shortage of affordable housing that seems to be getting worse from month to month.
On a national average, rental prices rose again in 2023, by 5.8 percent, as a current analysis by the real estate portal Immoscout24 shows.
There is an urgent need to restart construction.
But one of the proposals from the Ministry of Construction is currently encountering great resistance.
It would mean undermining a large part of the building regulations - without ensuring that more affordable housing is actually created.
New special regulations for the construction industry are intended to provide relief
The industry has already made many different suggestions to politicians that would currently help: reducing bureaucracy, reducing real estate transfer tax, clarity and reliability in funding programs, less strict regulations, tax incentives, to name a few examples.
In September 2023, industry representatives were invited to Berlin to discuss some of these measures at a construction summit with the government coalition.
This resulted in the promise of a “construction turbo” that, among other things, is intended to streamline planning and approval procedures.
In November, the federal and state governments also agreed on a pact to simplify the approval process.
In order to achieve this streamlining, the Federal Ministry of Construction wants to create a special regulation in the building code that would apply temporarily until the end of 2026.
For this purpose, a new paragraph 246e will be introduced.
The bill may be introduced into the Bundestag after budget week in February.
This new paragraph is intended to make it possible “in areas with a tight housing market” to completely ignore numerous provisions of the building code.
This should apply to construction projects that would build at least six residential units or if it leads to more living space in an existing building (e.g. expanding an attic).
The reason for this is that there is an “urgent need for more affordable housing”.
Alliance opposes traffic light plan: de-democratization of planning
But from the perspective of important players from the construction industry, such as the Tenants' Association, the Federal Chamber of Architects (BAK), the Working Group for Rural Agriculture (AbL) and the Association for Urban, Regional and State Planning (SRL), the project would not do exactly that.
Together with nature conservation associations such as the Nature Conservation Ring, Nabu and German Environmental Aid (DUH) as well as social associations such as the VdK, they clearly criticize the traffic light plan.
“With almost 900,000 residential units approved but not yet built (so-called construction surplus), there is great potential for creating living space on already designated building land.
The diverse causes of the reduced volume of new construction are not addressed with the introduction of Section 246e BauGB,” the alliance said in a statement.
If construction projects are allowed to ignore central aspects of the building code in the future - such as public participation and hearing their concerns - the alliance fears a “de-democratization of the planning culture”.
An association representative spoke to
Ippen.Media
about an “anti-democratic” project that was also “counterproductive”.
The reason for the feared job cuts is the weak economy in construction.
© Jan Woitas/dpa
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The associations also criticize the fact that the planned law does not contain any requirements that would ensure that affordable housing is actually created in the end.
The only requirement is that at least six residential units be created - whether these would ultimately be condominiums or rental apartments at fair prices is not stipulated by law.
“It also opens up the possibility of circumventing regulations to curb rental prices in areas with conservation statutes.
Conversions, additions and extensions that lead to an increase in rents and accelerate displacement processes can be implemented more easily and without the usual approval process,” the appeal continues.
Furthermore, environmental associations in particular criticize that the new special paragraph could lead to even more areas being sealed instead of approaching the actually set goal of using a maximum of 30 hectares of land per day by 2030.
According to the federal government, the average land consumption is currently 55 ha/day.
Germany even wants to reduce this to net zero by 2050.
The construction industry calls for reform of the building code and digitalization
So what is the alliance demanding instead?
Well, essentially what they have been demanding for at least a year: finally a reform of the building code in order to accelerate the planning processes in the construction industry not only in the short term, but above all in a sustainable and meaningful way.
“The planning process must finally be digitized comprehensively and not just half-heartedly in order to be able to vote and participate more efficiently,” says an article by the Bauwelt specialist portal on the topic.
The building code in its current form is now too broad and contains too many regulations - the essential core points of which have to be broken down.
Other representatives of the construction industry also see it that way.
“Fundamentally, we must finally understand that building has to become easier and cheaper in order to create affordable living space,” says Thomas Reimann, who is the president of the Association of Construction Companies in Hesse.
The “excessive bureaucracy” must urgently decrease and he also sees it as an important step to make greater progress with digitalization and strive for a reform of the building regulations.
“If we are talking about rules, we have to ask ourselves the legitimate question of whether there actually have to be 16 state building regulations or whether a federal building code would be much more helpful in order to allow faster planning across states with the necessary security and reliability,” says Reimann.
When asked, Steffen Mechter from the leading building materials retailer BayWa writes that the traffic light plan basically points “in the right direction”.
“In order to alleviate the housing shortage, we urgently need faster planning and approval procedures - but with a long-term perspective.” Introducing a temporary regulation is unrealistic, “because the procedures for drawing up development plans often take years.
It won't be built for a long time.
In addition, no one in Germany seriously expects that we will be able to solve the housing shortage within two years.”
The associations further point out that there is a tremendous amount of potential in the modernization and renovation of existing buildings - but there are hardly any incentives that will lead to a wave of renovations.
The building directive introduced by the EU was actually intended to lead to just such a wave of renovations.
However, at the request of the federal government, among other things, the law was significantly watered down.