As of: February 15, 2024, 7:30 a.m
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
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Finding accommodation in big cities is becoming increasingly difficult.
Scammers try to cash in on desperation.
There is no quick solution in sight.
Munich – Too few new apartments are being built and rents are rising, especially in big cities.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for people looking for housing to find affordable accommodation.
Potential landlords are being asked to impose increasingly bold – and even illegal – requirements.
Recently, a woman looking for an apartment in Munich was even asked to provide proof that she was not pregnant, reports the
Süddeutsche Zeitung
.
Real Estate: There is a lack of apartments – no quick solution in sight
In a recent study, the Hanover Pestel Institute estimates that there is a shortage of around 800,000 apartments nationwide.
There is no quick solution in sight: the federal government's goal of 400,000 newly built apartments will be missed both this year and next, the managing director of the Central Real Estate Committee (ZIA), Aygül Özkan, recently told the Augsburger
Allgemeine
.
“We won't be able to manage 400,000 this year either, and probably not in 2025 either.” There was a particular lack of affordable apartments in the middle segment, i.e. “for the proverbial nurse or police officer who might fall behind when it comes to housing benefit.”
It was only in January that the traffic light coalition reserved another billion for low-interest loans in order to stimulate new construction.
Investors and developers are suffering from a mix of increased material prices, higher wages for construction workers and the turnaround in interest rates that is making projects unprofitable.
Finding accommodation in big cities is becoming increasingly difficult.
(Symbolic image) © Axel Heimken/dpa
Last year the number of building permits fell by around a quarter.
According to the Munich Ifo Institute, the mood in the industry is worse than it has been since reunification.
According to the Ifo Institute, only 225,000 apartments were apparently built last year - around half as many as Construction Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) had originally targeted.
This misery on the housing market continues to drive up rents.
Looking for an apartment: Fraudsters make money out of desperation
This means that finding an apartment is becoming more and more of a nightmare, especially in major German cities.
There has been an increasing number of housing scams recently.
The Frankfurt police are warning, among other things, on social media about a scam that, according to them, many people are currently falling victim to.
In Frankfurt alone there has been a “mid double-digit number” of victims since December.
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The most common scam - advance payment fraud - goes like this: Normal rental apartments, which were originally advertised or offered for rent by the owner, are rented by the perpetrators and then further advertised as rental properties on the Internet, according to the police.
Viewing appointments are often arranged without the landlord or agent.
The key is in a key box and the prospective tenant can easily look at the apartment on their own.
The decisive factor is that the fraudsters call for a deposit or a transfer before the contract is concluded and the keys are handed over, so that things are supposedly quicker for everyone involved, says Peter Lassek from the Hesse consumer advice center, describing the scenario.
“That’s exactly where the alarm bells should ring.
A deposit is only due once the contract has been concluded and not before or shortly after the viewing date.”
How can more living space be created?
There are levers to create more living space - but instead of always just looking at Berlin, local politicians and municipalities themselves are also involved.
You can designate more building areas, lower requirements and allow more density, suggests the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
, for example .
A lot can also be achieved by expanding the infrastructure and local transport.
Because if a municipality has good connections to the next larger city, then the real estate there immediately increases in value.
With material from Reuters and dpa