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Hamburg (dpa / lno) - The housing offensive of the city of Hamburg with 10,000 new building permits annually must be stopped in the opinion of the environmental organization BUND. Referring to the high land consumption, BUND state chairman Christiane Blömeke said on Thursday: The goal “is irresponsible in a city-state like Hamburg from our point of view”. A tense housing market should not be a license for building at any price - especially since the high level of construction activity has so far not led to an easing of the pressure on the competitive housing market. Especially against the background of climate change, the extinction of species and sustainable urban development, a change of course in new residential construction is now necessary.
After the SPD took over government in 2011, the city concluded an “Alliance for Living in Hamburg” with the housing industry and increased its goals in 2016 to 10,000 new building permits per year.
A new version of the alliance is currently being negotiated.
The same applies to the “Contract for Hamburg - New Housing Construction” with the districts.
"In the meantime, a little over 106,000 apartments (...) have been approved," said BUND state manager Manfred Braasch.
In fact, only around 70,000 apartments have been built so far.
"We are taking this as an opportunity to clearly demand that there must be a moratorium on approval for privately financed housing construction."
Before the existing building overhang has not been worked off, no further areas should be planned and reserved for residential construction.
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So far, around 70 hectares are to be used for 10,000 apartments each. Then there is the infrastructure. As a result, an area the size of the Outer Alster is used every two to three years, said Braasch. In order to prevent this, a so-called net-zero concept must apply in the future, according to which an area of the same size has to be unsealed in another location for every square meter.
Braasch described the previous urban development concept by building senator Dorothee Stapelfeldt (SPD) as not sustainable. He also called for a new edition of the land use plan from 1997. Urban planner Jörg Knieling from Hafencity University said that surface sealing in Hamburg increased from 32 to 39 percent between 2010 and 2020. "We have a development here that approaches the basic qualities of the city." Living is very important, but it is much more creative than with the simple 10,000 apartment approach, said the BUND board member. Knieling referred to cities such as Zurich, Paris, Copenhagen and Barcelona, which took alternative paths in housing construction and surface sealing.
The Association of North German Housing Companies (VNW) warned against a reduction in housing construction.
This would primarily be at the expense of people with little money, said VNW Director Andreas Breitner.
Unlike BUND chairwoman Blömeke, he sees the building of new apartments as having a dampening effect on rent levels.
"This increase is now below the general rate of price increases."
In this respect, the previous Hamburg housing policy has proven itself.
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The urban development policy spokeswoman for the CDU parliamentary group, Anke Frieling, called the BUND demands “completely irresponsible”.
Instead of lowering the number of building permits, it should be increased.
The CDU parliamentary group is also committed to sealing as few areas as possible through creative solutions and intelligent redensification.
The housing cooperatives, private investors and privately financed housing construction are particularly important for this.
"What we don't need is a BUND that sets up climate protection and urban development as a contradiction in terms."
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210506-99-493979 / 2