Municipal housing

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Horseshoe settlement in the Berlin district of Britz - social housing estate and UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008

Municipal housing is the construction of apartments by the local government of political communities . The public administration of a city, a municipality, a district or a special purpose association predominantly intervenes in its housing market with the help of a municipal housing company . The goals include promoting social housing , increasing the attractiveness, securing local employment, urban redevelopment, countermeasures against urban sprawl and energy-efficient renovation. Often the municipality can generate additional income.

Historical role models

The oldest surviving draft of Erlanger Neustadt, red wash pen drawing (1686), attributed to Johann Moritz Richter

In Germany, the planned cities of the baroque city extensions built in Potsdam and Erlangen , among others, can be seen as precursors. Here houses were planned, built and then privatized on behalf of the respective king or margrave. The 140 apartments in the Augsburg Fuggerei , on the other hand, are not communal .

The direct forerunner of municipal housing construction from 1918 onwards was company housing construction , which became necessary with the start of industrialization from 1840. Examples are the colliery colonies from the 18th and 19th centuries in the Ruhr area or the Siemensstadt from 1914 in Berlin.

History in Germany

Development of municipal housing

From the middle of the 19th century, a number of construction companies and building cooperatives were founded in Germany . The charitable movement was strengthened by the introduction of limited liability under the Cooperatives Act of 1889. In 1899 there were 384 non-profit housing companies in Germany, 289 of which were cooperatives. After the First World War, municipalities became active in housing construction, as the destruction of the war and displacement as well as the rapid growth of cities led to a high demand for housing. The municipalities initially tried to resolve the housing shortage by force. Compulsory admissions were threatened in the event that no additional residents were admitted. However, this was not enforced. On April 1, 1924, the Reichstag passed the House Interest Tax Act . All owners of houses built before 1921 had to pay this tax. The political justification for this was that the property had not been devalued during the German inflation from 1914 to 1923 and the revaluation of the home mortgages after the end of the inflation amounted to a debt relief. The property owners passed the taxes on to the tenants, which initially led to a considerable increase in the price of living space. The money from the levy was made available to the municipalities earmarked for debt relief and housing construction. In particular during the phase between 1924 and 1931, known as the “house interest tax era”, the tax actually contributed to housing production, as significantly fewer loans had to be taken out for subsidized housing construction by housing associations and other non-profit housing companies due to the tax revenue. At this time, publicly subsidized housing construction clearly outweighed the privately financed creation of housing; between 1926 and 1930 the share of house interest tax in government investment in this area was about a third. At that time, the municipalities had better financial opportunities than private builders or building cooperatives. The municipality itself often acted as a municipal construction company or majority owner of a construction company.

With the non-profit regulation in 1930, a uniform legal basis for municipal housing was created. In 1940, the Non-Profit Housing Act (WGG) raised the self-imposed obligations of non-profit housing companies to the general legal norm:

  • Limitation of the activity to the construction, supervision, management and sale of apartments as well as sponsorship of measures for urban development and redevelopment
  • Limitation of prices for housing services to cover costs and running expenses
  • Capping of the annual profit sharing for members of the cooperative, owners and shareholders at 4% of the paid-in capital contribution
  • Use of unpaid surpluses for statutory corporate tasks
  • Commitment of all assets to the charitable purpose (construction obligation and reinvestment )

To compensate for these obligations, the non-profit housing companies were exempted from corporation , trade , property and often real estate transfer tax.

The newly built apartments were occupied by the labor aristocracy through to the middle class (foremen, engineers, politicians, civil servants, etc.). Hundreds of thousands of displaced people were able to move from emergency accommodation in railway wagons and wooden huts to the old buildings that were now vacated.

After the Second World War, the Burden Equalization Act was an instrument for promoting housing construction comparable to the house interest tax after the First World War.

To reduce social grievances, social housing construction continued on a larger scale until the 1980s. After that, the scope was reduced. When the social commitment expired after mostly 15-20 years, these apartments remained in the portfolio of the municipal housing companies.

Privatization of municipal housing companies in Germany after 1988

At the beginning of the 1980s, the political and social consensus on municipal housing construction dwindled. The CDU-FDP government sought tax relief while at the same time reducing subsidies. With exclusive emphasis on tax exemption and disregarding the legal obligations, municipal housing construction was accused of distorting competition in favor of non-profit housing companies. Even within the umbrella association of non-profit housing companies GGW , a minority of entrepreneurs spoke out in favor of dismissal from the Non-Profit Housing Act (WGG). With the New Home Affair in 1982, municipal housing construction also lost its reputation and support in politics and the population.

On August 3, 1988, the Tax Reform Act 1990 came into force, which also regulated the repeal of the Non-Profit Housing Act. Around 1,800 non-profit housing companies were made subject to corporation, trade and wealth tax as a result of the new law, but were also exempted from statutory obligations. Many municipal housing companies have been privatized. The withdrawal of the municipalities from housing construction not least enabled the emergence of large housing companies.

The sale of communal apartments received a boost from the tax exemption of the proceeds from the sale of investments, which was decided from 2001 under the SPD-Die Grünen federal government . Despite warnings from experts such as the then head of department in the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development Wolf Schulgen , for example, thousands of apartments were sold in Berlin; The city of Dresden even sold its entire urban inventory. In addition, the increasing indebtedness of the municipalities and the balanced housing market in East Germany, which is characterized by oversupply, favored privatization efforts.

The municipalities, however, almost exclusively benefited from the financial transactions in the short term. Only consultants, banks and lobbyists were able to skim off substantial profits. The reason for this was that the purchases were largely financed with borrowed capital , the debt of which was not borne by the buyer, but remained with the housing company. The municipalities' one-time income was mostly used up after a few years and they no longer owned the apartments. Private investors usually resold the portfolio after a short period of time without investing in renovation or expansion.

In the mid-2010s, a large part of the housing subsidy went into the formation of home ownership instead of municipal companies.

Challenges in the mid-2010s

In the mid-2010s, the disadvantages of the privatization of municipal housing became apparent. With lower building interest rates, the demand for housing increased. Tenants also reported a deterioration in the rental housing situation. As a result, in Dresden, for example, the establishment of a new municipal housing association was called for, while in Berlin 2016 even the remunicipalisation of the former GSW , i.e. reversing the sale, was discussed. In eastern German cities, the demolition of communal apartments due to vacancies was subsidized by the state at the beginning of the 2010s, but in the mid-2010s the demand in Berlin, Jena, Potsdam, Leipzig and Rostock was so great that the demolition was stopped. In other east German cities, however, the demolition continued, but the preservation of vacant municipal buildings as reserve quarters is being considered. In the housing program of the GDR incurred plate quarters were obtained by a combination of reconstruction and demolition a higher quality of living. In Vienna itself, there are currently no plans to privatize the municipal housing stock, but in the last 15 years no municipal buildings have been built, but rather cooperative buildings.

Participation opportunities for tenants

After surveys, the Berlin tenants' community at Kottbusser Tor found a deficit and thus the desire for more opportunities for residents to participate, especially in communal living. A study examines the possibilities of co-determination in the houses and settlements of municipal bodies

Examples of municipal housing

Vienna

Karl-Marx-Hof , Vienna

After the First World War, the housing stock in Vienna was rented in poor quality and at the same time comparatively expensive. From 1919 to 1934, 65,000 apartments were built in Red Vienna with the appropriate resolutions and taxes . In the course of this, the municipal housing for the city of Vienna was built. Housing was also built with the economic background of avoiding inflation, since at that time the viability of the rest of Austria was in question. In 2016, the City of Vienna owned 220,000 apartments, in which a quarter of Vienna's residents lived.

Berlin

Between 1919 and 1933, 124,000 communal apartments were created in Berlin . Several municipal housing associations emerged, including Degewo in 1924 . An example of municipal housing from this period is the Hufeisensiedlung , built between 1929 and 1930 with 1963 apartments.

After reunification, calls for the privatization of public housing became louder. The first sales took place on the basis of the Old Debt Aid Act , which obliged East German municipalities to sell 15% of their housing stock. In Berlin, this affected the Kosmos district, among other things. In 1994 this obligation was also applied to housing stocks in West Berlin. At the same time, the housing companies were obliged to contribute to budget consolidation. To do this, they had to generate minimum returns, distribute special dividends and generate income through mutual purchases, so-called self-dealing. In 1998, Gehag, the first complete communal housing company, was sold, with the State of Berlin retaining a blocking minority. There were further sales plans for GSW, which was ultimately bought in 2002 by a financial investor consortium. As a result of the sales, the stock of state-owned apartments had fallen from almost 500,000 to less than 300,000 apartments. Only in the 2010s did the municipal housing stock start to rise again. At the end of 2018, the state of Berlin with its 6 housing associations had a portfolio of approx. 306,900 apartments.

Hamburg

Grindelhochhäuser SAGA in Hamburg

In 2016, around a sixth of the population of Hamburg lived in the 130,000 apartments of the municipal housing company SAGA Group .

Dresden

In Dresden , the remaining 48,000 of the original 168,000 apartments of the municipal housing company were privatized in 2006. In 2016 there were calls for a new municipal housing company to be established. In 2017 "Wohnen in Dresden GmbH & Co. KG" (WiD) was founded. The first apartments will be completed in 2019. On the one hand, decision-makers at the time defended the sale of the apartments, as this led to the debt relief of the city treasury, on the other hand, the WID is trying to build up a resilient housing stock as quickly as possible.

Hanover

The Gesellschaft für Bauen und Wohnen Hannover (GBH), founded in 1927, had 13,000 apartments in its portfolio in 2015 when the question was asked whether the reserves generated should benefit the tenants or the city coffers.

Further examples

Hellerhofsiedlung, Frankfurt am Main

Frankfurt am Main: The municipal housing company ABG was founded in 1890 . In 2016 around a quarter of Frankfurt residents lived in their 51,000 apartments. An example of municipal housing projects is the Hellerhofsiedlung, built between 1929 and 1931, with 1,200 apartments.

Munich: GEWOFAG was founded in 1927 and in 2016 owned 37,000 apartments, 12,600 of which were subsidized.

Kiel: 18 years after the sale of Kieler Wohnungsbau Gesellschaft (KWG), a new Kieler Wohnungsbau Gesellschaft (KiWoGe) is to be founded in 2018 in order to be able to influence the housing market again.

Nuremberg: The Nuremberg Housing Association (wbg), founded in 1918, built 1,500 apartments between 1928 and 1932. For the 100th anniversary in 2018, it had almost 18,000 apartments in its portfolio.

Braunschweig: The municipal Nibelungen housing department created a total of 7,000 apartments after 1945. Around 1000 apartments were privatized in 2005 and 2006. From 2016, however, the housing stock was increased again with new buildings.

Wittenberge: Between 1912 and 1921, before all other municipalities, 135 apartments were completed in what is now the “Elbkarree”. Today the WGW manages 2,700 (from originally 4,100) apartments and shows that municipal housing is possible even in difficult markets. In addition, the wgw assumes the security of buildings in accordance with the Schweinfurt model

Ulm: The Ulmer Wohnungs- und Siedlungsgesellschaft currently offers 7,000 apartments for around 120,000 residents and can increase this further through proactive property management.

Wolfsburg ( planned city ): Based on Steimker Berg in 1938, Neuland now has 12,000 apartments (as of 2016).

Above communal housing

Special case “ Neue Heimat ”: Starting from the union-owned Hamburg construction company GKB from 1926, this also grew within the DAF ( German Labor Front ), was added to the DGB in the 1950s and expanded nationwide. After criminal mismanagement and a mountain of debt of 16 billion DM, this was settled between 1986 and 1990, with some municipalities taking over these apartments (in the meantime).

Nassauische Heimstätte : Founded in 1922 as a Prussian housing welfare organization, it now has 63,000 apartments in Hesse and Thuringia. Mostly owned by the state.

GBW Group : Founded as a Bavarian property developer in 1936 with the last 33,000 apartments. GBW was privatized in 2012 to settle debts from the rescue of LBBayern from the financial crisis (demand of the EU). Discussion at the moment whether this was actually the only solution.

The current situation (as of 2016)

From the beginning of 2016, housing construction and municipal housing construction were again increasingly subsidized by the state. In particular, the situation for students, low wage earners and refugees should be improved. An “alliance for affordable housing” from the federal government, federal states, municipalities, the housing and construction industry, the German Tenants' Association , trade unions and other actors pursued the goal of creating affordable housing in major cities and university towns and in the districts near the city.

In 2009, the municipalities were predominantly the sole owner of a housing company. Well over a third of the municipalities were involved in housing companies. Almost three quarters of the municipalities were direct owners of apartments. But this made up less than 5% of the population. Of the 1,400 municipalities surveyed, 445 held direct stakes in housing companies. Of these, 64% made profits between 2005 and 2007, 8% had a balanced balance sheet and 28% made losses.

Economic situation of the housing companies of 445 directly involved municipalities in 2009 by country group

Market share of municipal housing in the total housing stock (1,400 municipalities, 2009)

At the end of 2015, almost 2.5 million apartments were being managed by municipal housing companies in Germany.

Number of housing companies in Germany on December 31, 2015

Housing stock housing companies in Germany on December 31, 2015

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Thomas Drachenberg: White and other myths of modern architecture . In: The Mark Brandenburg. Journal for regional and contemporary history . tape 114 , no. 3 . The Mark Brandenburg - Publishing House for Regional and Contemporary History, 2019, ISSN  0939-3676 , p. 7-8 .
  2. ^ A b Christian Lieberknecht: WGG: The development phases of non-profit housing. In: haufe.de. September 20, 2013, accessed September 30, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Peter Köhler: Mieterbund boss on real estate deal: "We have a real problem on the housing market". In: handelsblatt.com. October 14, 2015, accessed September 26, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Ralf Schönball: Expert warned against the privatization of apartments: "It was said: Get rid of the houses!" - Berlin - Tagesspiegel. In: tagesspiegel.de. February 22, 2019, accessed February 23, 2019 .
  5. ^ Lutz Freitag : Sale of public municipal housing companies: What is worth gold ... In: haufe.de. September 20, 2013, accessed September 30, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Christoph Villinger: Guest contribution Rent alliance: Dare to expropriate! In: taz.de. February 29, 2016, accessed September 26, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Jens Schmidt: Tenants' Association wants to stop demolition. In: volksstimme.de. June 11, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Dominik Bath: Riecke: Second wave of demolitions will come. In: volksstimme.de. June 21, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Ralf Leonhard: Living is home. The tenant metropolis. In: the daily newspaper. December 28, 2018. (taz.de)
  10. ↑ https://www.kommunal-selbstverwaltungs-wohnen.de/
  11. ↑ http://ruby-press.com/shop/das-kotti-prinzip-urbane-komplizenschaften- between- raumen- menschen- zeit- wissen- und-dingen /
  12. ↑ Renate Berg: BMG - MieterEcho 283/2001: Beginnings of communal and non-profit housing construction - The 20s in Vienna and Berlin. In: bmgev.de. January 2001, accessed September 27, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Ralf Schönball: Expert warned against the privatization of apartments: "It was said: Get rid of the houses!" - Berlin - Tagesspiegel. In: tagesspiegel.de. February 22, 2019, accessed February 23, 2019 .
  14. ^ Gunnar Hinck: End of the housing company GSW: In the end, there are facades. In: taz.de. July 29, 2015, accessed September 27, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Joachim Oellerich: The destruction of the municipal housing industry in Berlin. In: bmgev.de. June 2009, accessed September 30, 2018 .
  16. ^ Bert Schulz: Coalition negotiations in Berlin: A signal to the tenants. In: taz.de. November 7, 2016, accessed September 27, 2018 .
  17. ↑ aftershocks for Ulbigs Woba-offense: Dresdner Mieterverein criticized CDU omissions. In: dnn.de. September 9, 2015, accessed September 27, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Michael Bartsch: rent policy in Dresden: Back to zero - taz.de. In: taz.de. March 2, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Thomas Baumann-Hartwig: Disaster in social housing in Dresden - nothing happens before May 2019. In: dnn.de. May 3, 2018, accessed September 28, 2018 .
  20. ^ Die Zeit on the situation in Dresden zeit.de
  21. ^ Andreas Schinkel: Dispute over GBH surplus of 30 million euros. In: haz.de. April 9, 2015, accessed September 27, 2018 .
  22. ^ Kiel decides to found a municipal housing company. In: haufe.de. September 25, 2018. Retrieved September 26, 2018 .
  23. ↑ wbg Nürnberg GmbH: Facts and Figures. In: wbg.nuernberg.de. Retrieved September 28, 2018 .
  24. ↑ Dietrich Heißenbüttel: Ulm builds itself. In: kontextwochenzeitung.de. November 29, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2018 .
  25. ↑ Alliance for Affordable Housing and Building. In: bmu.de. Retrieved September 28, 2018 .
  26. ↑ Housing construction for refugees too. In: bundesregierung.de. January 20, 2016, accessed September 26, 2018 .
  27. ↑ a b c Municipal housing stocks in Germany. Results of the BBSR municipal survey 2015. (PDF; 1.82 MB) In: bbsr.bund.de. Federal Institute for Building, Urban and Spatial Research (BBSR) at the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR), October 2017, accessed on September 30, 2018 .
  28. ↑ a b c GdW annual statistics 2015. (PDF; 1.67 MB) In: web.gdw.de. July 2016, accessed September 29, 2018 .