CDU on housing

The CDU wants to create more housing in Bremen's city center and use the city-owned companies GEWOBA, BREBAU, and BREPARK to do so. A subsidy program would support converting offices into apartments. In the party's view, the city center becomes attractive through people who also live there.

The CDU wants more people to live in Bremen's city center. City-owned companies should build or buy apartments for this. Offices should become apartments. There should be funding for that. Parking garages should also offer space for bikes and charging points.

GEWOBA and BREBAU would build themselves or buy and rent out apartments built by private firms. BREPARK would change from a parking provider into a mobility provider; the Katharinenklosterhof garage could become a neighborhood garage for residents. All parking garages would get secure bike parking, charging stations, car-sharing spaces, and possibly lockers. These services would later be rolled out across the whole city.

The CDU wants Bremen to build upward more and calls this architectural courage. In suitable locations, buildings should be allowed to rise above the cathedral.

The CDU wants to allow taller buildings in Bremen. In some places, buildings may then be taller than the cathedral. The party also wants special buildings along the Weser river.

The platform points to the Überseestadt district, where the party sees dense, tall construction as possible, wanted, and ecologically sensible. New approaches are to be developed for the city center as well. Along the Weser, which links Bremen and Bremerhaven, the CDU wants to create architectural highlights and revive the idea of the city on the river.

The CDU wants to complete 10,000 apartments and houses within four years to keep housing affordable. The municipal companies BREBAU, GEWOBA, and STÄWOG are to play a larger role, since private investors are said to be holding back because of rising costs.

The CDU wants to build 10,000 apartments and houses in four years. Then there are more homes, and housing stays affordable. The city's housing companies should build many of them. A fixed share of social housing should remain.

According to the platform, Bremen has land for about 29,000 homes; this land is to receive zoning plans and be built on quickly with BREBAU and GEWOBA. The new homes are to be affordable, climate-efficient, and resource-saving. The social housing quota stays in place, and for larger projects an increase involving the municipal companies will be examined so the units remain publicly owned for good. Housing cooperatives are to get more city land on long-term ground leases, awarded through a competition of ideas.

The CDU wants to make it easier to designate building land and to speed up planning procedures. In Bremen-Nord, vacant and build-ready sites are to be made available much faster, because the platform sees a lot of potential there for new construction and owner-occupied homes.

The CDU wants building in Bremen to go faster. Planning should take less time. Bremen-Nord still has a lot of unused land. This land should become building land more quickly. The building office there should get more staff.

The platform calls for simpler designation of building land and shorter planning procedures. It says Bremen-Nord has many unused opportunities for new construction. According to the platform, owning a home is easier to achieve there than in other districts. To release vacant and build-ready sites faster, the Bremen-Nord building office is to get more staff.

The CDU wants to make it easier to build on unused parts of large lots and to revise zoning plans for that purpose. The vacant-lot register is to list only sites that are actually for sale. The aim is to create new housing and use existing infrastructure.

Some houses stand on very large lots. The CDU wants to allow a second house on such lots. Building plans should be changed for this. There is a list of empty building sites. This list should get better.

Owners are to be able to enter their land in Bremen's vacant-lot register voluntarily, and the register is to list only sites that are for sale. A technical tool is to put owners and interested buyers in direct contact. Zoning plans are to be changed so that large lots can be split more easily and built on behind existing houses. The CDU wants to push this revision forward together with the local district councils (Beiräte). At least ten additional staff in the building and planning departments are to work on adding floors to buildings and on backlot construction.

The CDU wants to use the two public housing companies GEWOBA and BREBAU more actively for housing construction. GEWOBA is to keep its profits and build, renovate and buy more. BREBAU is to focus on housing construction and offer homes that are as affordable as possible.

Bremen owns two housing companies. They are called GEWOBA and BREBAU. The CDU wants both to build more homes. GEWOBA should keep its profits. It should use the money to build, renovate and buy homes.

GEWOBA is to stop paying profits into Bremen's budget so that more new construction and renovation become possible. It is to be the main partner for the goal of 10,000 homes and is also to buy additional apartments, so that the municipal housing stock grows. For BREBAU, which Bremen took over completely in 2019, the platform says a strategy is still missing. The CDU wants to focus the company on housing construction and use it to take a more active part in building.

The CDU wants to find and offer sites for tiny houses in Bremen. These small, partly mobile homes are to be open to everyone, such as students, trainees, families and seniors. Flat roofs and water areas are also to be considered.

Tiny houses are very small homes. Some of them can be moved. The CDU wants to find places for such homes in Bremen. Flat roofs should also be used. Living on the water should also be possible.

The platform points out that this form of housing has become established around the world. The search for sites is to include infill development, flat roofs and water areas. As an example, the CDU names the Europahafen harbor area, where living on the water could be an option.

The CDU wants public buildings and municipal housing companies to exceed the legal minimum requirements and wants to draw up a renovation roadmap. Private owners are to be encouraged through incentives to renovate step by step without being overburdened.

Public buildings should use less energy than the law demands. This also applies to the city's housing companies. Private owners should get help to renovate their homes. The CDU does not want to ask too much of them.

New buildings by GEWOBA, BREBAU and STÄWOG are to be built as plus-energy buildings where possible, meaning they produce more energy than they use. The "Bremer Standard" (Bremen's building standard) is to be developed further so that climate protection and affordable construction fit together better. Besides Bremen, Bremerhaven is also to get a Klimabauzentrum (climate construction center), involving actors such as Energiekonsens with funding for the task. Red tape and technically unnecessary rules are to be dropped. Condominium law is not to be able to block renewable energy for unrelated reasons.

The CDU wants to turn publicly owned housing companies into urban developers. They are to be allowed to make profits but must reinvest them for designated purposes. The background, in the program's view, is the slow growth in social housing.

Bremen owns housing companies. The CDU wants to give them more tasks. They should develop whole neighborhoods. They may make a profit. But they must invest the profit again. There should be more low-cost social housing.

Neighborhood development is treated as a task for these companies, and social housing quotas for existing and new buildings as a requirement. The CDU wants to create a legal basis for giving preference in tenders and planning to companies that follow these rules. Social housing projects are to be monitored more closely because of rising interest rates, energy costs and construction costs. The program points to the goal of 8,000 social housing units by the end of 2023, compared with only 6,400 at the end of 2021.

The CDU wants to cut the processing time for Wohngeld (housing benefit) applications from several months today to no more than four weeks from 2024. To do so, the housing benefit office is to get more staff, and applications are to be possible online.

People who apply for housing benefit in Bremen wait many months. The CDU wants to change that. From 2024, an application should take four weeks at most. For this, there should be more staff and online applications.

According to the platform, the long waits cause serious financial worries for many people. In the short term, the additional caseworker positions that have been created are to actually be filled; staff are to process applications and help people fill them out. The CDU wants to create the conditions for digital housing benefit applications without federal help if necessary. Both steps are to begin within the election year.

The CDU wants to digitize building application and permit procedures in 2023 and introduce an electronic building file. Building applications are generally to be decided within four weeks.

Anyone who wants to build needs a permit from the authorities. The CDU wants to make this process fully digital. There should be a building office on the internet. The office should usually decide within four weeks.

The platform argues that the lack of digitalization delayed construction projects and made them more expensive, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the future, all exchange between the authority and builders is to run through a virtual building office. Each project is to have a digital project room that applicants, planners, and specialist agencies use with tiered access rights. The building authority is to obtain documents on matters such as contaminated sites or unexploded ordnance itself so that builders do not have to.