Even the entrepreneurs have obviously understood how urgently new apartments are needed in the region.

Their most pressing problems at the moment are not the trade tax, the situation on the streets or the supply of commercial space, but the lack of housing.

This has just been confirmed by a survey of 420 managers in the Rhine-Main region.

It's not that long ago that employers didn't give a damn about where and in what price range their employees lived, the main thing was that they got to the office on time.

For decades, offering a job with at least halfway decent pay was enough to find enough applicants.

But that has changed fundamentally with the shortage of skilled workers.

Skilled workers need housing

What's both good and bad about him is how predictable he is.

It comes neither suddenly nor unexpectedly, but can be calculated over decades, due to decades of low birth rates and relatively fixed retirement ages.

The IHK Frankfurt has calculated that almost half a million workers will be lost in the region by 2035 as a result of this demographic development.

However, this reliability means that the constant mention of the shortage of skilled workers causes many listeners to yawn – and many politicians and lobbyists prefer to address seemingly more pressing problems.

As it is, however, it has been neglected to take the housing shortage that has been foreseeable for a long time seriously, also from an economic point of view.

For many it was and still is primarily a social issue. City planners and social politicians prioritized the highest possible proportion of social housing in new buildings - which are then counter-financed by the builders with expensive luxury apartments.

Revive an old idea

Only, hundreds of thousands of apartments are also needed for the middle class.

If they are missing, no average earner can be brought to the region to generate the prosperity here with which social benefits such as social housing or cheap local transport can then be paid for.

The long-heard criticism from chamber and company representatives that vacant areas should not be created for residential areas but for commercial use was therefore an apparent contradiction.

Both are simply required.

Especially when apartments become the new jobs anyway due to the home office.

Perhaps the entrepreneurs shouldn't just limit themselves to making demands on politicians, but should also become active themselves.

And start building company housing again, for example.