“Hard but fair”: Build your own home? Entrepreneur sounds the alarm

New “hard but fair” moderator: This is Louis Klamroth

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Berlin. Affordable living space is rare, and hardly anyone can afford their own property. With the new edition of “Hart aber fair”, Louis Klamroth wanted to know who was to blame for the housing shortage is.

Erdal Balci has been looking for a house for his family in Bremen for six years. “We want one House“Nothing more,” he says. He tells of up to 400 competitors for a property and construction companies who would have turned him away because other people would have paid more.

“Hard but fair”: These guests were there on Monday

• Klara Geywitz (SPD politician and Minister of Construction)
• Caren Lay (Politician, Die Linke)
• Erdal Balci (family man)
• Dirk Salewski (contractor)
• Gerhard Matzig (Journalist, Süddeutsche Zeitung)

In the meantime, the family has stopped looking for their own home and has moved back into a rental house. “Nothing is calculable anymore,” says Balci with regard to rising building-costs, higher building rates and political norms. “That is a big problem.”

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“Hard but fair” in the ARD: Housing is also a problem for the middle of society

In Germany there are currently only one million social housing, while around eleven million people are entitled to one. According to contractor Dirk Salewski, 700,000 new social housing units would actually have to be built every year to meet demand. However, only 400,000 are currently being built. “It takes time for the building policy to show its effects,” replies the Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz.

“It’s a problem that has reached mainstream society,” says journalist Gerhard Matzig. “For the moment it has become very difficult to fulfill the dream of home in Germany.” And Salewski also says: “We build apartments for the socially disadvantaged and for millionaires, but everything in between falls away.” Also read: Old building or new building: when which investment is worthwhile

“Hard but fair”: Journalist calls for stronger state control

The contractor says that demand from private builders has fallen “to almost zero”. Even Sophia and Adrian Leistner could no longer afford to build. They had already bought a piece of land, but the development took too long. In the meantime, interest rates had risen so much that they could no longer afford to build, they say.

Left-wing politician Caren Lay sees speculation in real estate as a main problem in the housing market. She calls for the expropriation of large housing associations and a state regulation for exchange apartments.

The journalist Gerhard Matzig agrees: “We need more government control. Housing is a human right. We can’t leave that to the market.”

For the edition of “Hart aber fair” in the ARD media library.

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