June 2023

Students on the "Integral Building" Master's degree course at Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences are designing an inclusive neighborhood at Wittekindshof in Bad Oeynhausen-Volmerdingsen. The neighborhood is intended to promote the coexistence of people with and without disabilities. The transformation of the site reflects the change in social work, with people with disabilities increasingly living in their own homes.

The situation on the real estate financing market appears to be stabilizing according to the latest data from construction finance broker Hüttig & Rompf AG. The decline in new business for residential construction and mortgage loans for private households has slowed. "Prospective buyers thus appear to be hesitantly adapting to the new interest rate conditions for mortgage loans," says...

How do employees who mainly work outdoors protect themselves from intense sunlight? And what precautionary measures do employers take? Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have now investigated this. The study shows that there are differences in terms of gender, industry sector and working hours when it comes to individual...

Thanks to the new version of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), operators of home photovoltaic systems have benefited from more favorable conditions since the beginning of the year. This is the opinion of the energy advice service of the consumer advice center. Funding has been extended, remuneration rates increased and bureaucratic obstacles and taxes reduced. These changes particularly affect systems with a...

The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) will shortly be hearing a case concerning the duty of disclosure of a real estate seller during a due diligence investigation (V ZR 77/22). The focus is on the question of what responsibility the real estate seller bears for providing relevant information, in particular in the context of pre-contractual assurances about future...

Trellis fruit offers yield and privacy in one and, according to the "schoener-wohnen.de" portal, also acts as an elegant alternative to traditional walls or hedges. Cultivating trees on scaffolding makes it possible to grow apples, pears, cherries and other types of fruit even in smaller gardens. Shaping fruit trees on wooden or steel scaffolding is a centuries-old technique that...

Over 1,500 energy-efficient refurbishment projects have been initiated to date through the KfW's urban energy refurbishment funding program. This was recently announced by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR). In a study, it examined how the funding program was implemented from 2018 to 2022 and found it to be successful. "The integrated approach 'from building to...

Building owners in Germany are to be able to submit their building applications digitally this year. Felix Pakleppa, Managing Director of the German Construction Industry Association (ZDB), welcomes this development. However, he is calling for mandatory guidelines. By the end of 2023, more than half of the lower building supervisory authorities are to go digital, according to the Federal Building Ministry. "That is...

At the second Photovoltaics Summit, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Robert Habeck presented a strategy to strengthen photovoltaics. The strategy includes action plans in eleven areas, ranging from energy policy and securing skilled workers to technology development. "Photovoltaics is one of the cheapest energy sources of all and is one of the...

According to the Administrative Court of Neustadt an der Weinstraße, owners must place their waste garbage cans somewhere other than their property if it cannot be accessed by the waste collection service for factual or legal reasons (AZ: 4 K 488/22.NW). This applies in particular if access is only possible in reverse. The reason for this is that, according to the...