2023

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...

The Kreislaufwirtschaft Bau initiative, under the auspices of the Bundesverband Baustoffe - Steine und Erden (German Federal Association of Construction Materials - Stone and Soil), recently published a new monitoring report with figures on the generation and fate of mineral construction waste. According to Dr. Matthias Frederichs, Chief Executive Officer of the German Federal Association of Construction Materials - Stone and Soil, "mineral construction waste is today almost completely...

The energy consulting service of the consumer advice center provides tips on how owners and tenants can prevent the formation of mold through proper heating and ventilation. After showering, cooking or sleeping, the property should first be completely aired. Subsequently, the energy advice of the consumer center recommends to leave the windows open for two to three hours...

A meadow orchard in Berlin-Johannisthal/Adlershof must make way for a school building. This was decided by the Berlin Administrative Court (VG 24 L 36/23). In the case in question, a community school is to be built on a plot of land of around 3.5 hectares, on which there is currently a meadow orchard. According to the Federal Nature Conservation Act, meadow orchards are protected biotopes that cannot be...

In addition to people in need of care who are cared for at home, nursing home residents can also apply for housing subsidies. This is pointed out by the NRW consumer center. Many people are not aware of this. If nursing home residents wish to apply for housing allowance, however, they must observe special regulations. For example, the housing allowance claim is not based on the individual rent amount, but on...

More about the "New Challenges for Home Ownership" was found out by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW Köln) on behalf of Deutsche Reihenhaus AG. One of the findings of the study was that fewer and fewer Germans can afford home ownership. Whereas a couple with a net income of 3,730 euros (median income household) was able to afford...

A new design strategy for processing medium manganese steel with improved properties has now been developed by a research team, mainly from China's Northeastern University and the Düsseldorf-based Max Planck Institute for Iron Research (MPIE). In its development, the research team has taken into account that steels must now not only be sustainable, strong and formable, but...

The academies of science acatech, Leopoldina and the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities have published an impulse paper entitled "Are blackouts in Germany likely? The researchers assume that "major power failures up to and including blackouts" are "unlikely" in Germany. However, they outline four measures to reduce the risks of large-scale blackouts in Germany.