District wants to develop concept for the construction of apartment blocks
Housing is in short supply not only in major German cities, but also in rural areas. The creation of 400,000 new homes per year envisaged by the German government is far from being realised. And the privately financed construction of new flats has also stalled. The district therefore wants to develop a concept for the construction of apartment blocks together with other stakeholders.
Housing shortage - especially inmedium-sized centres
According to data from the housing promotion office in the Waldeck-Frankenberg district's building department and feedback from almost all towns and municipalities in the district, there is a shortage of housing everywhere. There is a particular lack of affordable social housing and small flats for younger people who are looking to become self-employed after school, training or studies - primarily in the medium-sized centres. The district would like to counteract this and has set itself the task of promoting the construction of apartment blocks in Waldeck-Frankenberg. The plan is to build flats of different sizes that meet the requirements of modern and energy-efficient construction and living and that can be built in any town or larger municipality.
Socially acceptable rents
"In order to make the future rents socially acceptable, we would like to generate funding - including funding that goes beyond the usual housing subsidies," says Karl-Friedrich Frese, the district's first district councillor and head of the building department. "The usual funding programmes cannot be used to construct and maintain such buildings economically in rural areas." To this end, a meeting was recently held with the spokesperson for the management of WI-Bank Hessen, Gottfried Milde, which was attended by the First District Councillor as well as Jan-Wilhelm Pohlmann, Member of the State Parliament, and André Heine from the Building Department.
"Funding is fundamentally faced with the problem of being as broad-based as possible on the one hand, but also having as targeted an effect as possible on the other. The district of Waldeck-Frankenberg has initiated preliminary work that appears to be fundamentally suitable for meeting the specific needs of rural areas and has thus broken new ground," says Gottfried Milde. The ideas presented were characterised in particular by the cost-effective option for flexible use of the residential properties. "This," continues Milde, "could serve as a model for similar projects throughout Hesse.
All those involved now want to press ahead with the planning and financing of such potential housing projects and find a solution. In the next step, the district wants to approach the towns and municipalities to identify possible plots of land that can be built on.