Why isn’t the city of Hanover doing anything to combat vacancies and speculation?
Three floors of living space, unused: In one of the best residential areas in southern Hanover, an apartment building has been empty for years. The front door is now locked with a board wall for fear of vandalism. The exterior of the house on Weinstrasse across from the health department has turned gray and shabby. Nevertheless, interested parties keep coming, says a resident. “But that’s probably an object of speculation,” she suspects.
Real estate values are constantly increasing
How you can earn money with empty apartments, and how speculation works, can be explained relatively easily these days. Anyone who puts their money in an account loses money even without negative interest rates, currently up to 5 percent per year due to inflation. But if you own a property and simply don’t sell it for a year, the property even has no rental income. Because of the high demand, the value increases every year – a current forecast expects this year in Hanover again by 14 percent. Doing nothing also pays off.
Because, at the same time, many people in conurbations cannot find affordable housing and new buildings are often unaffordable for average earners, the state gave the municipalities the right in 2019 to take stronger action against the misappropriation of living space. But you have to issue a statute that stipulates when vacancy is prohibited and where the conversion of apartments into offices or short-term hotel-like apartments is prohibited.
Left demand statutes against misappropriation
In the Council’s building committee, Left Party leader Dirkmachentanz urged Hanover to finally implement the statutes announced by the Green-Red majority. They are an “effective housing policy instrument” and “an important building block in the fight against the housing shortage,” he justified his initiative.
In fact, opinions differ on this. SPD parliamentary group leader Lars Kelich said he did not consider a misappropriation statute “to be the instrument that wins back the living room for the masses”. Green building politician Julian Mensak agreed with him. For the CDU councilor Patrick Hoare, the demanded intervention in the freedom of real estate owners is “a deep dig into the left mothball”. For him, only “build, build, build” can help against the housing shortage.
The left-wing push only received approval from the voter community “Die Hannoveraner” and the fun party “Die Party” – but the small groups no longer have voting rights in the committees, which is why the motion was rejected unanimously.
750 apartments are rented commercially
This involves up to 750 apartments that could become free again for the normal housing market through a ban on commercial short-term rentals via platforms such as AirB’n’B. A report by the company Empirica, commissioned by the building authorities last year, revealed that many apartments are rented out more or less commercially to city tourists or gangs of craftsmen. The appraisers conclude that action would be most worthwhile against short-term tourist rentals.
Controls are personnel-intensive
However, a ban on misappropriation entails very complex controls, as is known from cities such as Berlin or Munich, which are already pursuing dies. And because Hanover’s building management can hardly keep up with the previous tasks, the department asked last summer to let the matter be.
The council majority will not follow that. SPD parliamentary group leader Kelich emphasized again on Wednesday that they expect a concept from the building department in order to get a basis for a decision. For him, however, it seems less about a ban on the controversial short-term rentals and more about stopping speculative vacancies. “I take a critical view of this from a regulatory point of view. An apartment is there to be lived in,” said Kelich.
Is the number of unreported cases even greater?
For Green Party leader Daniel Gardemin, on the other hand, the last word has not yet been spoken about short-term rentals. “The Empirica report only queried the bright field – the number of unreported apartments that have been withdrawn from the housing market is likely to be much larger.” He reported on real party houses, where city tourists invaded at night.
“The residents are not only annoyed by the noise, but also worried about fire safety,” said Gardemin. He pointed out that hotels had to meet the “highest requirements”. while the party houses just muddled through.
The water meter shows vacancy
FDP faction leader Wilfried Engelke’s concerns that the misappropriation statute would introduce a system of spying and denunciation were dispelled by Gardemin with examples from other cities. There, the administration finds houses that have been vacant for years with an inquiry to the public utility company – because no water consumption has been registered there for years.
When Hanover now receives a statute against the abuse of apartments, however, remained open in the debate. “As soon as there are suggestions from the administration, we will act,” said Kelich.
By Conrad von Meding