Lower Saxony's red-green state government wants to make building significantly cheaper by removing regulations. However, the opposition criticizes that she is leaving out one area.
Hanover - In view of the planned reform of Lower Saxony's building regulations, the CDU is calling on the state parliament to also question energy standards. This is necessary in order to really reduce the costs for the renovation of existing buildings, but also for new buildings, said CDU MP Christian Frölich on Thursday.
“The lever of climate protection lies in the decarbonization of energy sources, not in the decimal place of the kilowatt hour saved,” said Frölich. Although higher efficiency standards reduced energy consumption, they also led to significantly higher costs for manufacturing, servicing, servicing and replacing components.
Construction Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) had previously presented his plans for changing the building regulations. These stipulate that regulations such as the installation of an elevator in certain renovations or mandatory car parking spaces in new buildings will no longer apply. In the future, approval procedures will no longer be necessary for renovations. And in order to be able to build on properties more closely, the boundary distances for new buildings should be reduced.
“Letting go is the guiding principle,” said Lies, referring to state building regulations. “We can no longer afford to keep adding one more thing and making it even more expensive to create living space. It has to be cheaper.”
The aim is to provide impetus for affordable housing and new orders for the construction industry, said Lies. Because both the construction industry and the housing market were in crisis.
There was more than just criticism from the opposition about the plans. CDU MP Frölich said that the draft law shows that the country has opportunities to deregulate construction. However, a change to the building regulations could at best be a start to boost housing construction, renovation and conversion. As possible further steps, Frölich mentioned, among other things, low-interest loan programs for new buildings through the NBank development bank and a partial refund of the property transfer tax for the first property used by the company.
AfD MP Omid Najafi said his group does not oppose planned easier construction measures. However, according to the state government's plans, an obligation to carry out energy-related renovations remains. This will not solve the crisis in the construction industry.
The need for new apartments in Lower Saxony is great. The housing market report presented in November showed that almost 237,000 additional apartments will be needed by 2040. In the area of state-subsidized social housing, the number of apartments has fallen from more than 85,000 to around 51,000 since the end of 2016.
The Association of the Housing and Real Estate Industry in Lower Saxony and Bremen (vdw) praised the planned building reform. With lowered standards, construction costs would be noticeably reduced. “This leads directly to lower housing costs and thus relief for thousands of tenant households,” said association director Susanne Schmitt last week. dpa