Affordable Housing Support in Hamburg: New Funding Options for Middle-Income Households

They are far from living in poverty. However, they often cannot find affordable housing in Hamburg. Because of high rents, the city is now also supporting middle-income households.

Because of ever-increasing rents, Hamburg is now also supporting middle-income households. “In order to make it possible for these households to have a subsidized rental apartment, we are supplementing the previously available funding instruments with a third funding option with a low initial net rent of 12.10 euros per square meter,” explained Urban Development Senator Karen Pein (SPD) on Friday. These rents – they may rise by a maximum of 20 cents per square meter every two years – would be significantly below the rental prices of many freely financed new building projects.

The offer from the Hamburg Investment and Development Bank (IFB Hamburg) has been valid since the beginning of the month. While the SPD, the Greens and the Association of North German Housing Companies (VNW) praised the red-green Senate’s move, criticism came from the Left and the FDP, which declared: “What kind of signal does it send when families with a household income of over 6,000 Euro gross per month declared to be in need?”

According to the information, single people with a gross annual income of a maximum of 42,200 euros are entitled to an apartment on the 3rd funding route. For two people the limit is 62,800 euros, for a family of three it is 80,250 euros gross. For comparison: In the first funding route – where the initial rents are 7.10 euros per square meter – the income limits for one-, two- and three-person households are 28,500 euros, 42,200 euros and 53,800 euros gross. With the second funding method – which allows initial rents of 9.20 euros per square meter – they are 35,300 euros, 52,500 euros and 67,000 euros gross.

Long-term advantages for investors and tenants

With the third funding route, the number of Hamburg households eligible for assistance increases from almost 600,000 to around 650,000. Middle-income families should also have access to affordable rental apartments, said IFB boss Ralf Sommer. “We therefore encourage everyone to take advantage of our attractive funding conditions and to get involved in creating affordable housing in Hamburg with the help of our loans and grants.” As in the first and second funding paths, investors received loans with a fixed interest rate of one percent for 30 years and one-off construction cost subsidies. According to the information, the ongoing subsidies amount to between 40 cents and 3.50 euros per square meter.

“Anyone who gets in and builds here will not go bankrupt at all, but will receive loans at an interest rate of one percent and a prospective return of four to five percent over the entire funding period of 30 years,” said the housing policy spokesman for the Green parliamentary group in the Hamburg citizenship, Olaf Duge. Another effect for the tenants: “In this way, we give these people a basic level of security and thus attract exactly the skilled workers to our Hanseatic city that we so urgently need.” SPD parliamentary group vice-president Martina Koeppen called the third funding route an important stimulus “that can help stimulate housing construction in Hamburg again”.

VNW director Andreas Breitner said: “By introducing a third funding route for housing construction, Hamburg is taking the right step to counteract the crisis in the construction of affordable housing.” In principle, it will enable VNW member companies to build apartments again and offer them at affordable rents. “I am optimistic that one or two construction projects can be ‘saved’ that previously threatened to disappear into the drawer.” The CDU urban development expert Anke Frieling spoke of a good addition, but it does not solve the fundamental problems in housing construction such as the approval period.

“Construction costs must come down”

The chairman of the northern regional association of the Federal Association of Independent Real Estate and Housing Companies (BFW), Kay Brahmst, said: “It must not be the case that the new building is only worthwhile with state funding.” In privately financed housing construction, rents of more than 20 euros per square meter are required today so that the projects can be built to cover costs. “We can’t get used to this, the construction costs have to come down,” said Brahmst and, among other things, demanded a significant reduction in specifications and construction standards.

The Senate should first provide for the almost 600,000 households that could claim an apartment under the 1st or 2nd funding route, demanded the housing policy spokeswoman for the Left Party, Heike Sudmann. There was a lack of hundreds of thousands of apartments with rents between 7 and 9 euros. “The introduction of a third funding method is a disgrace for the Senate’s housing and rent policy – because the rent explosion cannot be noticeably curbed in this way.” From the point of view of Hamburg’s FDP deputy Katarina Blume, the third funding route is nothing other than an admission that “Hamburg’s construction policy has been completely driven to the wall from a good starting point.” The red-green coalition is strangling the construction industry, resulting in rising rents. And “subsidies are then distributed as a recipe for self-inflicted misery.”

2024-04-06 18:02:07
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