The cranes are still turning over many construction sites in Frankfurt, but the number is decreasing: Last year the building supervision approved the lowest construction cost in decades: “Only” 873 million euros - in this millennium, builders have never had less money to build Buildings in the Main metropolis.
In good years the value is twice as high.
The main reason for this is the pandemic.
As long as it is uncertain when and whether the market for hotels, trade fairs and office buildings, for example, will recover, investors hold back and wait for a while.
The problem: Building is a slow business with a high planning lead time.
It will take years for the machine to run smoothly again.
What do you do in such a situation?
The construction industry should be stimulated.
So offer incentives as to why it is worth investing in Frankfurt.
But the city does the opposite.
The building land resolution with its complicated quota rule, which is hardly manageable for investors, is to be tightened again under the new Roman alliance.
There are more and more clients who are therefore avoiding Frankfurt.
Gloomy prospects
The prospects for the designation of building land are similarly bleak.
It is true that the population no longer grew as much during the pandemic.
But Frankfurt has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to residential construction.
The prices are no longer affordable for large parts of the population, and the supply has to be increased.
But the sensible Günthersburghöfe project with 1,500 inner-city apartments - also for climatological reasons, because it avoids commuter flows - is being crushed against all reason.
That even frustrates long-established greens.
And the signal to the construction industry is fatal: You cannot rely on the city.
Who would still invest under these conditions?
Instead, the designated coalition is looking for luck in extremely complicated projects such as the dismantling of the Miquelknot, the yield of which is more than questionable.
And in symbolic politics: It wants to require building owners to green the facades of new high-rise buildings.
Of course, you can do that - as an experiment.
But the extremely complex and costly greening of high-rise facades is a misnomer: with large street trees or green roofs, much higher effects can be achieved.
The city should remain on the ground and compact and green there.