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Every year Hamburg wants to approve at least 10,000 apartments in order to counteract the rise in rents.

In the current year that could not work for the first time in five years, at the end of November only 8,800 permits were available, according to NDR that is 20 percent less than in the previous year.

In addition to the difficulties caused by the corona pandemic, high requirements for building owners and the increasingly difficult search for suitable land are the reasons for this development.

The construction industry is currently still implementing the permits from previous years, but Hamburg's Chamber of Crafts President Hjalmar Stemmann sees the economic stability of the craft also at risk because of the corona pandemic.

Most companies have so far got off relatively lightly, he said on Tuesday.

But "almost everyone will feel the consequences with a time lag, for example if purchasing power continues to decline, construction contracts decline or business partners become insolvent".

Politicians must therefore avoid everything that makes life and work difficult for employers and employees.

Hjalmar Stemmann, President of the Hamburg Chamber of Crafts

Source: Bertold Fabricius

Stemmann, for example, complained that the Senate paid little attention to the handicrafts in its concept of the traffic and mobility turnaround and that no perspective was discernible in neighborhood policy either.

"If the trades can no longer approach their customers with the workshop trolley and can no longer pay high commercial rents, shops and workshops close," warned Stemmann.

Craft businesses are also being pushed out of their quarters because of the greatly expanded residential parking zones.

That contradicts the political goal of increasing the quality of life through a mixture of residential and commercial.

Stemmann sees the access restrictions in the city center as similarly problematic.

"Should the 120,000 employees in Hamburg's handicrafts become night workers in the future because their service vehicles are not wanted during the day?"

Strong uncertainty is noticeable

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The corona pandemic has greatly unsettled the trade this year.

“The first lockdown directly affected hairdressers, beauticians and podiatrists.” According to the information, businesses whose main customers had to close, such as hotels and restaurants, were also financially affected.

“These include dry cleaning and laundries, bakeries and butchers,” said Stemmann.