Housing associations to drive supply of affordable housing
MELBOURNE: Housing associations/not-for-profits are set to be the drivers of supply to the multigenerational affordable housing market.
An alliance of several German housing associations on Thursday called on the federal government as well as Germany’s federal states and municipalities to present an “acute plan for social and affordable housing in Germany”.
According to a study by the Pestel Research Institute that the associations presented in Berlin, a “minimum target” of two million social housing units by 2030 would restore the favorable housing levels of 2007.
The cross-sector alliance consists of social and tenants’ organizations as well as industry and construction associations in Germany.
“Only 5.4 percent of all rented flats are social flats,” although “between 40 and 50 percent of households in large cities are theoretically entitled to social housing,” said Robert Feiger, head of the German construction association IG BAU.
In order to achieve the target of two million social housing units in Germany, it would be necessary to build at least 80,000 new units per year, 53,000 more than last year, the study read.
In addition, 75,000 already existing flats would require government support through subsidies for modernization or would need to be used as social housing units through staying rights or reduced rents.
However, this was only possible if the German government “substantially increases its support for social housing construction,” said Matthias Guenther, head of the study.
According to lead author Guenther, the German government would need to “more than double its funding” for social housing from 2.4 billion euros (2.6 billion U.S. dollars) to 6.3 billion euros per year in order to reach the minimum target of two million flats.
At the latest annual meeting of the German tenants’ association, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) had pledged 5 billion euros for the construction of social housing in Germany during this legislative period until 2021.
Merkel said that her government needed to “create a climate in which people like to construct homes”.
