By Larissa Hoppe
home exchange In the overloaded Berlin rental market, that seems to be the salvation. Big versus small, the rent stays the same, it’s that simple. But puff cake. Visit to a roundtable.
Around 30 listeners and representatives of Berlin and Brandenburg housing initiatives came to the large room of the Förderverein Stille Straße 10 in Pankow that evening. Lots of seniors. Everyone is concerned with the question: Could an apartment exchange help? The 80-year-old widow, who has an old and cheap lease, but is finding it increasingly difficult to support her 120-square-meter household. Young couples, perhaps with a child, who have to make do with 60 square meters but cannot afford a 4-room apartment at current rents.
Many are open to the win-win idea of swapping apartments, but when it comes down to it, things get tricky. This is also shown by the numbers that David Eberhardt from the BBU Association of Berlin-Brandenburg Housing Companies throws at the wall. The BBU operates the exchange portal “www.inberlinwohnen.de“ for the six state-owned housing associations, i.e. for tenants at Degewo, Gesobau, Gewobag and Co.
Since the portal was launched in September 2018, the number of users and inquiries has risen continuously, and 239,538 procedures have been initiated. But: By May 2023, only 491 exchanges had taken place. Oops, what’s going on?
The next slide provides an answer. 51 percent are looking for a larger apartment, only 11 percent a smaller one. Many seniors only want to move within their neighborhood. And: The new home must be barrier-free – a junk shack with a shower cubicle won’t help.
Keyword bathroom. That must also be attractive for the next tenants. Nothing there with orange tiles. However, this risk is given if the senior has been in his apartment for 25 years and not much has been done. The wood paneling struggle suddenly becomes very real.
renovation? Difficult when rooms are vacated and moved into again on the same day. And if the net cold rent should not be increased. What is a must for the landlord to recoup costs would be a poor exchange from the tenant’s perspective. Private providers should be able to get out of this loss-making business quite quickly and the state-owned providers will also become Caritas.
Overall not convincing.
Stefphan Machulik (SPD), State Secretary for Housing and Tenant Protection, who also came to the round of talks, is rather cautious about the exchange of apartments: “We saw a much higher potential than there is in the end.” If 10 percent of the need could be realized in this way , be happy.
In order for this to work, the Senate administration wants to outline again where the biggest problems lie. In the future, the advertisements should show directly which WBS is required for the respective apartment. Further considerations from the visitors of this evening: Even more analogue information, more support with relocation and renovation.
Yes, helping seniors find their way into a new apartment is the right thing to do. But not in an exchange apartment.
Exchanging apartments is a charming idea, but it largely preserves the current state. To the detriment of the stock, which is slowly being run down. And an apartment exchange is an idea that obviously fails because of the demands.
What Berlin could promote instead: new construction, purchase and renovation of existing buildings. Including a floor-level shower.