2021

In the Home Report 2021, published by the trend and futurology institute "Zukunftsinstitut", the author Oona Horx-Strathern deals with the living trends 2021. In addition to numerous facts and figures, trends and theses around the topic of building, the author devotes herself in the "trend dictionary" to newly emerged words and terms from the industry. The development of a new vocabulary...

According to forecasts from Workthere, a subsidiary of real estate advisor Savills, demand for "flexible workspaces" is expected to be strong in the second half of the year. Even though order utilization dropped from 79 percent before the Corona pandemic to 65 percent in November 2020, Workthere's real estate experts anticipate a slight increase in demand as early as the first half of 2021,...

To ensure that a building is adequately protected against moisture, prescribed standards should be observed. The water or moisture acting on the building from the outside can cause damage to and in the building if faulty constructions in terms of building physics do not provide sufficient heat and moisture protection. In addition, the ventilation behavior of the occupants influences the moisture content of the...

Homeowners who own an existing property whose energy certificate is ten years old or older in May 2021 must have it checked and, if necessary, renewed. If the property is to be sold, leased or re-rented, the new requirements must be met. The legal basis for the guidelines is provided by the Building Energy Act (GEG), which came into force on November...

If tenants receive a statement of operating costs, they have a right to inspect it. Pursuant to Section 259 (1) of the German Civil Code, the tenant is entitled to inspect the receipts. The landlord is obliged to submit invoices and payment receipts to the tenant for inspection. In the case at hand (AZ VIII ZR 118/19), tenants of a rented apartment were requested to make an additional operating cost payment of 1,262...

To ensure that a utility room remains a storage miracle, it requires good planning and organization. With a good layout and the right furniture, food, cleaning products, household appliances and all things that should not be in the hallway or kitchen, can be sorted and stored. Depending on the size and shape of the utility room, different design options come...

In January 2021, the German Institute of Urban Affairs (DIU) issued a special publication on the topic of "Active land policy: the foundation of urban development". Against the backdrop of land scarcity and ever-increasing land prices, cities and municipalities see themselves as having a responsibility to pursue a more active land policy. The study is a joint project between the...

Homeowners who want to do paving work on their property themselves can get good results with a little skill. Whether the paving is a courtyard entrance to the garage or a walkway to the house, one of the basic tasks in paving is to compact the subgrade. This is because if paving stones are placed on an insufficiently compacted...

In order to build energy-efficiently, legal requirements from the Building Energy Act (GEG) must be met. These relate, among other things, to thermal insulation as well as power generation and supply. These aspects and methods are specified in a construction engineering concept, as are the type of heating and information on the energy requirements of a house. Basically, there are three different...

The German Real Estate Association (IVD) provides helpful information on its website on how to deduct the costs of using rooms in the apartment or house as a study. This is because the Corona crisis is accompanied by changes in the world of work: there is a shift of the workroom to the home office. Therefore, according to Section 4 (5) Sentence 1...