Real estate mogul Christoph Gröner: Why he no longer builds in Berlin

Von NAG Redaktion

Christoph Gröner, a well -known building contractor in Germany, is heading for Berlin, but he has not pursued any construction projects in the capital for two years. Gröner was an important donor from the Berlin CDU in 2020 and gave a total of 820,000 euros to the party. At his future forum in Berlin in March of this year, he identified himself as a convinced social democrat. In a conversation, he explained that the exploding property prices and high construction costs make affordable housing in cities such as Berlin.

Gröner emphasized that the construction costs alone are not decisive for priceless living space, but the exorbitant property prices make up a large part of the total costs, especially in cities such as Munich and Hamburg. In its earlier construction activity in Berlin, Gröner offered cheap living space, but the property prices and rental costs rose drastically in a short time. This forced his company to largely withdraw from the Berlin market since 2022.

In response to the difficult situation in Berlin, Gröner emphasized that the low purchasing power of the city's citizens would make it difficult to implement profitable construction projects. He believes that politics in Berlin and other German cities urgently need to take measures to facilitate the creation of new living space and to overcome the ideological hurdles in housing construction. Gröner proposed innovative approaches such as covering motorways to create additional living space and emphasized the importance of a healthy mix of different forms of living in the cities

GRÖNER also expressed doubts about large-scale plans for the changeover to air-air heat pumps or split air conditioning systems, since these are not technologically and financially feasible. He emphasized the need for profound rethinking in politics and the economy in order to cover the growing need for living space and to improve the quality of life in cities like Berlin.