General

The number of building permits in Germany has fallen. That is according to figures recently published by the Federal Statistical Office. From 2021 to 2022, the number of building permits thus fell by 6.9 percent to 354,400 apartments. The figures reflect building permits for both new and existing housing. "The difficult mix of rising interest rates, strong...

In Germany, early warning systems need to be improved and hazards communicated more clearly. This is the conclusion of a working group at the University of Potsdam. Immediately after the flood disaster in the summer of 2021, the working group asked those affected online how they had been warned about the flood. The results showed that 35 percent of respondents from North Rhine-Westphalia and 29 percent of...

A neighbor dispute has ended up in court in Munich. In the case in question, a couple wanted to buy a six-square-meter plot from their neighbor in order to have access to Lake Pilsen. The couple owns a plot without lake access and a tubular plot with lake access. However, the couple can only reach Lake Pilsen via the six-square-meter plot....

A new kitchen should be well planned, and with the support of experts. This is the advice of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Die Moderne Küche (AMK). This will ensure functionality, flexibility and ergonomics in the kitchen later on. When planning, among other things, the base cabinets can be considered. Drawer systems with elements such as cutlery trays create individual...

In 2022, there was as little trading in residential portfolios and apartments as there had last been during the financial crisis of 2009 and 2010, the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) recently reported. According to BBSR, only twelve portfolios with at least 800 rental apartments changed hands in 2022 and a total of only 38,400 residential units. This is the result of an evaluation of a corresponding database on...

A very special hotel opened in Düsseldorf-Flingern at the beginning of March. At "b'mine," guests can not only stay overnight, but also reach 26 so-called CarLofts with their car in a car elevator. After the elevator ride, the car can simply be parked in the parking space in front of the room. The parking spaces are not only intended to save guests the hassle of searching for a parking space, but...

A system called "RENbuild" for the combined regenerative supply of buildings with fresh air, cooling and electricity is currently being developed by the Center for Applied Energy Research (CAE) in Würzburg and other project participants. The RENbuild system is composed of hybrid collectors, a high-performance heat/cold storage system, a heat pump system and a building automation system. According to...

In Berlin, land may not be used as so-called container parks in which tenants live in caravans, for example. This has now been decided by the Berlin Administrative Court (VG 13 L 325/22 et al.). In one of the cases at hand, an operator had set up and rented out containers on a 4,000-square-meter plot in Treptow-Köpenick without permission. The rental costs...

Who would like to set accents in its dwelling or its house with copper, can place for it for example appropriate small bowls or vases on a bookshelf or the windowsill. The portal livingathome.de points this out in its article "Wohntrend Kupfer: Glanzstücke für die Wohnung". If residents choose untreated copper, different shades of color will emerge over time. Reason for it...

Paying high rents and repaying loans is a burden for more and more Germans. That's why 12 percent of 12,000 respondents are planning to move for financial reasons. This is what the ifo Institute and Immowelt found out in a joint analysis. The respondents could theoretically save costs, for example, by moving from the usually expensive city to the often cheaper...