Expert group: New housing creation campaign must become greener | Umweltbundesamt

“Public-sector funding for building must – despite the apparent urgency in some conurbations – be consistent with our international climate action agreements. Only climate-friendly building of high-quality design can guarantee attractive housing in the long term. Expert planners are achieving high efficiency standards in zero emissions building technology for an additional investment of only 50 to 100 euros per square metre of living space,” said Mr Schulze Darup.

“Urban planning is also crucial for the creation of sustainable, attractive and future-proof housing – a lesson which we are still learning from the mistakes made during post-war urban development and building, which focused on large, purely residential and ever more compact settlements and the predominance of car traffic,” says Dr. Matthias Lerm, Member of KNBau and city architect of Jena. The recommendations presented by KNBau consist of eight points which aim to increase and sustain the attractiveness of living space in urban areas. It is particularly important, says the Commission, to focus more strongly on quality-based development of the building stock, residential areas and urban districts, perhaps through levying a tax on vacant dwellings and second homes. This would still allow for the construction of attractive housing while maintaining the density necessary for quality of life in cities. Compact, mixed-use urban neighbourhoods ought to become the standard – they have higher quality of life to offer and are more easily accessible on foot, by bike or public transport than sprawling settlements. Such measures would make it possible to maintain the attractiveness of shrinking cities and break the vicious cycle of outmigration - of young people in particular - and thus prevent the further aggravation of the housing shortage.