Germany's capital Berlin is crying out for affordable housing. A plan to cut red tape might lep

Berlin

Berlin is grappling with a critical shortage of affordable housing, as demand continues to outpace supply. Real estate agents and residents report that finding an affordable apartment can take years, with many units only accessible to those able to pay high rents. 

Efforts to address the crisis include new laws to speed up building permits and the construction of hundreds of affordable units, but experts note that additional urban infrastructure and planning reforms are needed. Comparisons to international projects highlight the need for more comprehensive neighborhood development in Berlin.

Berlin's apartment squeeze

These people have come to view an apartment, one that has just become available. The line is nearly 200 meters long. Markus Grün has seen this many times before. The real estate agent says demand in Berlin has outstripped supply for years. The city is short tens of thousands of apartments. The pictures are appalling. And believe me, what's even worse, I've seen a person who gets an apartment cry tears of joy, bawling like they've won the lottery. That is really not normal in Germany anymore. Housing policies have failed to lead to the construction of more affordable apartments. A newly built unit only becomes cost-effective at a net basic rent of 22 euros per square meter. But hardly any tenant in Berlin can afford that. Christian and his wife spent four and a half years searching for an apartment. They searched online, they use a real estate agent, all without success. The 40-year-old only managed to secure the apartment he's renovating, because another tenant backed out at the last minute. As I understand, it's not that there aren't any apartments, it's just that there aren't any affordable ones. So if you're willing to spend 2,500 or 3,000 euros a month for a 90-square-meter apartment, you can find one. So what's lacking is affordable housing. 243 affordable apartments are being built on this construction site. It's taken builder Christian Jerome four years to bring this project to fruition, because permits take way too long in Germany, and a growing number of regulations are making construction expensive. One bright spot is turbo-construction, a new law that aims to reduce the time it takes to get a building permit. Turbo-construction is absolutely the right tool to encourage faster building. We've wasted a lot of time in the last 10 or 20 years, but now I'm looking to the future with optimism. This could lead to many new apartments being built. But new builds alone won't solve Berlin's housing problem. In Grünau, on the outskirts of the city, several thousand apartments have been built in recent years. But shopping and leisure facilities are lacking. That's according to Dirk Moritz. He develops concepts to make urban neighborhoods attractive and more livable. Other countries, he says, are much further ahead than the planning authorities in Germany. For example, in London, in the borough of Croydon, we transformed a project. The original plan was to build 1,000 single-purpose apartments there. Instead, we presented the city planners with a concept to establish urban living in the area, including a university campus and numerous leisure activities. Christian is very happy with his new home and with the neighborhood. While he still has his hands full with renovations, he plans to move in here with his wife and child in three weeks.

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