Gröner Group: Housing shortage in Berlin - why does Christoph Gröner build nothing more?

Gröner Group: Housing shortage in Berlin - why does Christoph Gröner build nothing more?

Christoph Gröner, one of the most important builders in Germany, has built his business headquarters in Berlin, but has not built anything new in the capital for two years. In 2020 he was the generous donor of the Berlin CDU with a donation of 820,000 euros. At a future forum of his Gröner Group in Berlin at the end of March, he said as a convinced social democrat. How does this go together?

GRÖNER said that the exploding property prices in Berlin have become the main problem for him and his company. The cost of building itself is not the main problem, but rather the exorbitant property prices that were left to the speculators. The increased construction costs are a challenge, but not the primary problem.

He emphasized that Berlin has a lower purchasing power compared to other cities such as Cologne, Leipzig and Karlsruhe and this influence the profitability of construction projects. Since the purchasing power of the Berliners is no longer sufficient to cover the high property costs and profits, he has decided to largely withdraw from the Berlin market since 2022.

GRÖNER suggested that politics had to create faster building law to combat the lack of housing in Berlin. He emphasized that the real estate industry should not continue to serve as a gate for political ideologies. According to Gröner, the willingness of politics is missing to consistently ensure more living space, and it is necessary to keep ideological discussions out of housing construction in order to find solutions for the urgent living space problem.