Fast housing required: Magdeburg is fighting against housing shortage!

Fast housing required: Magdeburg is fighting against housing shortage!

Magdeburg, Deutschland - in Magdeburg, the calls are more loud after a faster housing construction. The chairman of the IG Bau Altmark-Börde-Harz, Thomas Waldheim, has urged that the construction of social housing and affordable apartments will be promoted quickly. As reported Magdeburger News, only 852 new apartments were built in 2024, including 126 single-family and double houses. This shows a dramatic need for more living space in the city.

The construction costs for the past year amounted to a proud 79.2 million euros. But the reality looks dark: the lack of affordable apartments is a nationwide problem. According to [ig bau] (https://igbau.de/chronischen-burnout-on-social housing market-stopping-10,000-new-social apartments-pro-jahr), we have a residential emergency in Germany with a deficit of around 550,000 apartments, of which 35,000 are also missing in Berlin. The tendency is alarming, because experts fear a further decline in the new building this year.

demands for new building offensive

IG Bau is calling for a comprehensive new building offensive to create at least 210,000 social housing annually by 2030, including 30,000 in Berlin. Two million social housing is to be realized by 2028. However, the number of social housing is currently only 1.07 million - a decline in the past decades is unmistakable.

And there are concrete suggestions to reduce construction costs: The study by the construction institute ARGE suggests reducing construction costs by 25 to 33 percent. The introduction of a so -called building type E, which enables simple and efficient construction. Even fewer strict standards and DIN standards could help to achieve the goal "good & cheap". The amount for apartments could be reduced to around 2,920 euros per square meter.

political responsibility

Politics is required: The traffic light government was committed to creating 400,000 new apartments, of which 25 percent should be social housing. However, this goal was not achieved. Only 23,000 social housing were funded in 2023 - a clear decline compared to previous years. Even if the federal government has invested more money in social housing, the costs for the construction of these apartments are increasing significantly.

Another aspect that politics according to BMWSB should keep in mind since the end of 2023, which has fallen a chance could mean to revive the market. In the fourth quarter of 2024, prices for new buildings rose by around 3.1 percent, and the number of new mortgage degrees shows a positive trend.