Living in Frankfurt: Living cheaper thanks to housing projects | hessenschau.de
Singles, families, couples – in view of the real estate prices, communal housing projects are becoming increasingly popular in Frankfurt. The city supports the construction of multi-generation houses.
The multi-generation house in Frankfurt’s Unterliederbach district is located between allotment gardens and a grocery store. 25 people have been living there under one roof for six months. There are two car-sharing vehicles in the backyard of the house, and solar panels are installed on the roofs. Single people, couples and families live in the eleven apartments.
Including multi-generation house
What is special about the housing project: Four men with mental disabilities also live on the ground floor, who are looked after by carers from Lebenshilfe Frankfurt e. V. are supported. One of them is the 58-year-old son of Jean-François Ameloot, who has moved into one of the apartments in the multi-generational house with his wife.
Day of the open housing project in Frankfurt
On Saturday, the open day residential projects30 community housing projects open their doors in Frankfurt.
End of further information
Ameloot says that their son has lived with them until now. “The fact that he can be our neighbor here is ideal because it makes him more independent, but he can still live with us in one place.”
For other reasons, Katharina Brautigam and her husband Maximilian moved into the multi-generation house. For the family, the neighborhood and the solidarity they experience there is a big plus. “In the large common room we organize regular game nights and film nights and we also go shopping for each other,” explains Maximilian Brautigam.
That’s great, said the groom. The other decisive reason was the favorable living conditions in the housing project.
Affordable housing
The owner of the multi-generation house in Frankfurt-Unterliederbach is the Frankfurt housing association WBG. The groom does not pay rent for this, but a usage fee of 12 euros per square meter, which corresponds to rent. The real estate fund of the city of Frankfurt put the property out to tender.
The Fund does not sell certain properties to the highest bidder in the housing market. As part of the concept process, certain areas are allocated to community housing projects at a fixed price in order to support them.
Frankfurt: 70 residential projects completed or in planning
According to the Frankfurt building department, there is a clear trend towards more housing projects based on solidarity. 40 housing projects are currently under construction or in the planning stage, and 30 other groups are currently planning a housing project. The trend towards more solidary living goes hand in hand with the increasing variety of lifestyles, the change in living biographies and the desire for stable-priced housing.
Another solidary housing project that should be completed in two and a half years is the Sonara housing project, which is a young initiative in Frankfurt-Höchst. In order to finance the construction, the members founded a cooperative. They have stipulated that they will cover their costs, no profits and that the new building may not be sold. “This is how we want to guarantee constant rents,” explains 28-year-old Valentin Fuchs, who has been planning the project for over two years.
Solidarity living is attractive for the 28-year-old because it allows you to react to individual life plans. It is often the case that after their children have moved out, people living in up to 200 square meters do not make sense in terms of housing policy. The new building that Valentin Fuchs and his friends are planning is to be built opposite the Bolongaro Palace in Frankfurt-Höchst. The city of Frankfurt had also awarded the property there.
Individual life plans
Together with the architect Klaus Korbjuhn, who is also building the multi-generation house in Frankfurt-Unterliederbach, the initiative was awarded the contract as part of the tender by the city of Frankfurt. Ten apartments are now to be built on a plot of land measuring around 300 square meters. The special thing: “We are planning cluster apartments,” explains Valentin Fuchs, “which we can put together like a large flat share or separate again from each other”. Depending on how lifestyles have evolved.
The 20 residents have already been determined. They all have different professions, work in social professions, in IT or in the health sector.
The square meter would probably cost 15 euros. That doesn’t sound progressive at first, says Valentin. However, their specially founded cooperative guarantees that rents will not rise. The initiative made the construction possible with a construction loan, direct loans, equity capital and subsidies. The aim of the monthly rent is to pay off the loan and not to generate any profits.
Construction of the Sonara residential project in Frankfurt-Höchst is scheduled to begin at the end of the year. The group has also come up with a solution for disputes. If that is the case, they want to resolve the issue with a chosen confidant of the group. If they are also involved in the dispute, an external mediator must be involved.
Broadcast: hr-fernsehen, Hessenschau, 12.5.22, 7:30 p.m