Lack of housing in Berlin: Building contractor Gröner in an interview

Lack of housing in Berlin: Building contractor Gröner in an interview

Christoph Gröner, one of the most prominent builders in Germany with his business seat in Berlin, has not realized any construction projects in the capital for two years. He was the largest donor of the Berlin CDU in 2020, but now declares himself a convinced social democrat. In a conversation at the Future Forum of his Gröner Group in Berlin, he explained the difficulties regarding ecological building and exploding construction costs. Gröner emphasized that not the construction costs, but the expensive property prices are the main problem.

Gröner emphasized the dramatic price increase of building plots in Berlin in the past 15 years. The enormous property costs have meant that the average rent in the new building is 20 to 25 euros per square meter. He emphasized that the scarce availability of land in the hands of speculators had to be counteracted in order to create affordable living space.

With regard to current construction projects in Berlin, Gröner announced that his company had acted very cautiously in the past two years due to the explosively increased property prices. The lack of purchasing power of the Berliners is a decisive factor that affects the profitability of new construction projects. Despite the potential in Berlin, the group of companies has no longer realized a new building in the capital in recent years.

Gröner criticized the Berlin purchasing power as inadequate for a capital and warned a misguided economic policy. The lack of affordability of living space in Berlin means that even Berlin -born have difficulties financing rent or property. Here, Gröner addressed social and economic injustices and pleaded for a healthy mixing of living space that takes into account both social housing and free market.