1. Berlin is moving on a proposal of 'forcing' more housing options. If you drive around (you see the same issue in Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Mainz)....you tend to notice an occasional old building (6 to 8 apartments) which is standing vacant. It's a place in need of serious renovation (figure a minimum of 1-million Euro as a starting point).
The city senate wants a law in place where they will take the property....renovate with their own 'team', and then charge the owner for the act.
Legal? Well....their lawyers haven't found any city in Germany which has done this....in this manner. The act does seem to revolve around a standing house which might not be worth saving, and is worth more as a property....to tear down and rebuild from scratch. Money then? Well...you are engaging in a big problem if the house is over 100 years old.....a lot of paperwork and gov't regulation to 'save' the house 'as-is'.
Getting a house renovation project geared with the massive paperwork required? I would suggest the city government doesn't really understand or appreciate the effort required.
Legal challenges? I would make a guess that off house number one they select....this will go on for five years in court, and be found with tons of legal problems in handing the guy a bill.
All of this....because of a housing crisis in Berlin? Yeah....that's the basic entry to the problem.
2. I noticed off 'WattsUpWithThat'.....a fairly good article on the cost of energy for Germans (in English).
A bit of blame going on around the country about the cost factor and how this will hurt the economy in the long run. Worth a read.
3. Back in 2016....Berlin authorities staged a raid on a brothel. The accusation made....hookers there were 'slaves'. Massive raid....none of the charges were proven in court. The brothel sued the city of Berlin. Yesterday.....the court said the city screwed up, and assigned them a cost of 100,000 Euro to pay the brothel owners.
4. Lot of hype over the Boris Becker interview (after the release from the Brit jail). Sat1 (the commercial network) paid a hefty sum of money for the first interview. I suspect at least a third of German society watched the interview.
5. So, this Covid story is laying there. The Charité Hospital in Berlin, a world-renown operation, had done a long Covid study and published it via the journal "Science".
In the past day or two....it's been taken down. Chief reason? N-TV says there was a problem in contamination with the test samples.
3 comments:
On point 2. I guess at least it's just an editorial. I mean, that's pretty much an identical editorial that could have been run any time in the last 30 years and been just as correct as it is now. Pity that the site itself has as much scientific credibility as Scientology. Maybe take a slight pause and read https://wottsupwiththat.com/ instead.
Oh, and on point 1 we really need a tax on this. In Sydney there's whole apartment buildings left deliberately empty to negative gear tax and artificially keep rents high. That's the practice that needs to be punished. Charging a tax on based on un-rented living space would be a good start to fixing up some of these shortages.
There's a point with aged buildings where conditions have reached a point with a 100-year old building....adding the cost up, it doesn't make sense to renovate. It makes more sense to tear down the building. Sadly, there's various regulations on older buildings, where the city gov't wants you to hire specialists and 'save' the older buildings.
'Over regulating' in real estate creates a long-term problem.
I have a restaurant/pub building in my village (around 110 years old). Water problems popped up...repair identified tons of issues after that. A 40,000 Euro job suddenly went up into the half-a-million Euro range. Owner tried to go the tear-down route...whole new building. Nope....city won't authorize it. So the structure sits there (five years now)...closed and non-operational...occasionally a repair guy will come in and do 2 weeks of work...finding more issues. I think the guy will end up passing away, and the property will revert to the town. They will end up funding it out of tax-revenue...something that the owner couldn't do.
I do agree...lots of various issues on apartment shortages...some triggered by owners...some by the gov't, and some by out-of-pace costs for the past twenty years.
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