There is a great story up today over at ARD (German public TV, Channel One), which goes to the topic of affordable apartments in Bavaria lacking.
The cities they looked at? Munich, Augsburg, and Wurzburg.
The housing market is tight, and reaching a point where it requires both parents to work to some degree.....to afford a three bedroom apartment.
If you wanted a personalized 'tour' of the problem existing....the article does a good job of introducing you to public feelings.
What has gone wrong? For the past year, I've spent a fair amount of time reading over the issue....from a national prospective (it's not just Bavaria). It comes down to three central themes:
1. When real estate has been approved for projects....it makes more financial sense for the speculation/real estate crowd to build condos, rather than low-cost apartments.
2. Cites back in the 1980s and 1990s got out of public housing to some degree....selling the housing, and letting companies manage it. The companies went to renovation plans, and along the way....increased the rent (sometimes double.....sometimes even triple). To recover from this....the cities could go back and buy the apartment buildings, but they'd need tens of billions to just make a simple impact on the chaos.
3. Urbanized areas have become magnets. The idea of living 30 to 50 kilometers away? Maybe if they have decent rail service....it'd be a 'plus-up'. But people are intent upon living in bigger cities, and that pushes the rent up.
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