CDU on housing

The CDU wants to found an apprentice services organization together with chambers and associations to run dormitories for apprentices. The background is that midsize firms can hardly find affordable housing for their trainees.

Apprentices have a hard time finding a cheap place to live in Hamburg. So the CDU wants to found an organization for apprentices. It should run dorms for them. Students should also get more dorm places.

The existing "Azubiwerk" foundation is to be brought into the new organization. The CDU also favors building employee and company housing. As the universities expand, additional dormitory places for students are to be created.

The CDU wants to boost housing construction through faster permitting. The administration is to be modernized and given more staff, review tasks are to shift to sworn architects and engineers, and the agencies involved are to be bound by deadlines.

The CDU wants building permits to come faster. City offices should become more modern and get more staff. If an agency does not answer in time, the application counts as approved. Experts such as architects should take on more responsibility.

Publicly appointed and sworn architects and engineers would vouch to the state that submitted documents comply with all laws; exemptions and deviations would still be decided by the administration and political bodies. For the public agencies that must be consulted (Träger öffentlicher Belange), deemed approval would be used more widely, with the deadline depending on how complex the application is. The authority would have four weeks to check documents for completeness and could request additional material only within that period. The platform also relies on standardized and modular construction and an incentive system for innovation in housing. The CDU wants Hamburg to become the most investment-friendly city.

The CDU wants to reverse the decline in social housing in Hamburg and continue subsidies for it reliably. The one-third mix rule for new construction is to stay in principle but could be relaxed depending on the area.

The CDU wants more social housing in Hamburg. These are low-cost apartments for people with little money. In new buildings, one third should still be social housing. Where there is already a lot of it, the rule can be relaxed.

According to the platform, the number of social housing units has fallen steadily over the past ten years. The CDU wants to raise it again while also ensuring that the middle class can live in sought-after locations at reasonable market rents. The one-third mix (Drittelmix) means new developments consist of equal shares of social housing, rental apartments and owner-occupied apartments. In areas that already have many social housing units, deviations would be allowed in order to keep neighborhoods socially mixed. The party wants to curb rising rents mainly through more construction.

The CDU wants targeted support for company housing and for apartments for trainees and students. The platform sees this as additional housing that is especially important for Hamburg as a business location.

The CDU wants to support housing for company employees. Trainees and students should also get more housing. The city should provide money and help find land. Permits should come faster.

The plan includes financial support, help in finding suitable sites, and assistance with planning and permitting. As an example, the platform cites the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, which according to the CDU had to wait years for changes to development plans and for permits to build staff housing. The party argues that a larger supply would slow rising prices.

The CDU wants more older office buildings converted into housing and plans to loosen planning and building law to that end. The platform points out that many companies need less office space because of remote work.

Many companies need fewer offices today. The CDU wants to turn old office buildings into apartments. The rules for planning and building should become simpler for this. It names City Nord and City Süd as examples.

According to the platform, new and attractive offices still find tenants, while older space in less central locations hardly does. Such buildings are often suitable for housing, for example in the City Nord and City Süd districts. The CDU promises more flexibility in planning law and wants to simplify the building rules for rezoning offices as residential buildings. Neighborhoods are to be developed carefully so that Hamburg also remains a business and logistics hub.

The CDU wants to prevent additional requirements for new construction and renovation, both in Hamburg and at the federal level. Owners would decide for themselves how far and how fast to upgrade their buildings, with the carbon price and reporting duties serving climate protection.

The CDU wants no new rules for building. It says too many rules make building and rents expensive. Owners should decide for themselves how to renovate their buildings. The price on CO2 should take care of climate protection.

The platform attributes rising construction costs partly to detailed requirements from the former federal government and Hamburg's SPD-Green Senate. It cites experts who say the EH 55 building standard is sufficient to meet climate targets. In the CDU's view, applying the highest standard to every single building drives costs and rents up disproportionately. Instead of detailed rules, the party relies on the rising carbon price and ESG reporting by investors. A building's emissions efficiency is to count for more than its energy efficiency alone.

The CDU wants to make it easier for families with children and younger people to buy property through a city grant called "Hamburg-Geld." It would be accompanied by subsidized loans from the city's development bank and a waiver of land registry fees for first-time buyers.

The CDU wants to help families buy an apartment or a house. The city would add money. The CDU calls this Hamburg-Geld. People buying for the first time would also get cheap loans.

A family with two children would receive up to 30,000 euros. First-time buyers would get capped, heavily subsidized loans through the Hamburgische Investitions- und Förderbank (the city's development bank); low-interest loans would also be available for extensions and conversions that create new housing. When city land is awarded, developers could commit to selling to families with children at a fixed price. At the federal level, the CDU wants better depreciation rules for investment in existing buildings and tax deductibility of loan interest. The party also affirms its support for building single-family homes.

The CDU wants heritage protection applied according to uniform standards and with more restraint. In areas covered by a social preservation ordinance, landlords should again be able to carry out necessary repairs.

The CDU wants clear and equal rules for protecting historic buildings. Owners should not be left alone with the costs. In protected residential areas, landlords should be able to repair their buildings. The city should repair its own monuments in time.

The platform criticizes that private buildings are listed without much warning and that owners are left alone with the consequences. Neglected monuments in public ownership are to be funded and restored in good time. Social preservation ordinances (Soziale Erhaltungsverordnungen) are meant to protect tenants from displacement; according to the CDU, however, they cause repairs and energy upgrades to be skipped for cost reasons. The party therefore wants to change the framework so that landlords can carry out this work.

The CDU wants denser and taller construction along Hamburg's main roads. This is meant to create many new apartments without paving over green space.

The CDU wants to build more apartments along big roads. Buildings there should be taller or get extra floors. That way green spaces stay free. The projects should start faster.

The platform names infill development, adding floors and multi-story new construction as the means. It accuses the Senate of merely discussing the so-called Magistralen concept for years, saying finished development plans fail because of disputes between the building and transport authorities. The CDU wants to carry out the projects more quickly together with the housing industry.

The CDU wants to revive the urban development project "Sprung über die Elbe" (Leap across the Elbe) and better connect and develop Harburg. The starting point is the Technical University, around which space for research, companies and housing is to be created.

The CDU wants to strengthen the borough of Harburg. Harburg should get better transport links. Companies and researchers should work together around the Technical University. There should be more dorms and apartments.

According to the platform, Wilhelmsburg benefited from the building exhibition and garden show, while opportunities in Harburg went unused. Sites already designated for cooperation between business and science are to be developed. Because the Technical University attracts more students from Germany and abroad, dorms and apartments for staff, researchers and professors are to be built in a planned way. This also includes social and cultural infrastructure.

The CDU wants to develop downtown Hamburg, including HafenCity, according to a single plan. A coordination office with its own decision-making powers is to replace what the party sees as uncoordinated individual projects.

The CDU wants one overall plan for downtown Hamburg. HafenCity is part of it too. One office should steer everything and be allowed to decide. So far, the CDU says, there are only single projects without coordination.

The plan is to cover traffic, wayfinding with clear signage, and infrastructure for all road users. It also includes varied uses, some non-commercial, a connected cultural axis, new attractions and more greenery. The platform complains that many discussion groups achieve little and attributes this to a lack of resolve on the government's part. Among the burdens on the centers it lists vacancies, long-running road construction sites and stalled large projects.

The CDU wants housing included in every conversion and new construction project downtown, because in its view a lively center needs residents. Changes of use are to be made legally easier, and the city is to work with private investors.

Few people live in downtown Hamburg. The CDU wants to plan apartments in every building project there. The city should work with private investors for this. The CDU rejects a ban on furnished rentals.

According to the platform, only 2,000 housing units have been built downtown since 2008. Offers are to target seniors, students, trainees and incoming skilled workers, for example with cluster apartments. The CDU wants to ease the legal conditions for changing the use of buildings and speed up coordination and permitting. For housing and new forms of use, it relies on public-private partnerships. It rejects significant restrictions such as a ban on renting out furnished apartments.