Exploding property prices in Berlin: Interview with building contractor Christoph Gröner

Von NAG Redaktion

Christoph Gröner, one of the leading builders in Germany, has its business in Berlin, but has not been building anything in the capital for two years. Despite his financial support for the Berlin CDU in 2020 and its commitment to the social democratic ideas in a future forum, explains Gröner that ecological building is part of his corporate strategy. However, the construction costs have increased so much that affordable living space increasingly becomes utopia.

In cities such as Munich, Hamburg and Leipzig, the costs for the construction and the land vary significantly, whereby the increasing prices for building plots in Berlin are a special problem. The development of rents in Berlin since Gröner's construction activities in 2010 illustrates how much the property prices and the total cost of housing have increased. Gröner emphasizes that the scarcity of land will benefit speculators and that the builders are often undeservedly standing as scapegoats, even though they only get narrow margins.

Despite his previous commitment to the construction of over 5000 apartments in Berlin, Gröner has withdrawn in the past two years due to the exploding property prices. The economic strength of the Berliners is no longer sufficient to cover the necessary rental prices, which makes the new building economically unattractive. This means that Gröner relocates his investments in cities with better purchasing power such as Cologne, Leipzig and Karlsruhe.

GRÖNER calls for a pragmatic approach to the new housing in Berlin and suggests using unused areas more efficiently for housing. He emphasizes the need to keep political ideologies out of housing and to find common solutions for acute housing shortages. Gröner warns that a lack of living space can lead to social unrest and that politics must act urgently in order to preserve the democratic values ​​and to guarantee people an appropriate living space.