The Managing Director of the German Construction Industry Association (zdb), Felix Pakleppa, does not expect the 400,000 apartments targeted by the German government to be built this year. "With around 293,400 new apartments completed last year, we fell well short of expectations and the forecast. Unfortunately, we have to assume that there will be...

The Solar Decathlon Europe, according to the organizers the world's largest university competition for sustainable building and living, is being held in Germany for the first time. The event is also open to the general public: from Friday, June 10, to Sunday, June 26, visitors can find out more about sustainable building and living, architecture and climate protection free of charge.

Property owners must also comply with the consideration requirement in building law if they want to build parking spaces for electric vehicles (VG 13 K 184/19). This was recently decided by the administrative court in Berlin. In this case, the owner of a property in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg wanted to build five parking spaces with two electrical connections. On the property there are...

The "freundin.de" portal reveals which colors are currently trending in kitchens. The colors white, green and dove grey are currently in. The colors pink, anthracite and baby blue are no longer in vogue. The portal also gives some reasons why this is the case. White, for example, looks timeless, green radiates freshness and dove gray, also known as taupe, looks very...

Can investors reduce the number of parking spaces required for new residential construction and can this save space if there are subway stations, car-sharing services or rental bike systems in the immediate vicinity? How many parking spaces are still needed? What legal conditions need to be taken into account? The German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) is investigating these questions on behalf of the Bavarian...

At the PCI Alpine Cup in Augsburg, 14 young tilers from 14 nations will be competing against each other from Thursday, July 7 to Friday, July 8. Philip Großkopf from Flensburg and Malte Laurich from Vreden will be competing for Germany. The two already won the PCI Alpine Cup last year and now want to defend their titles. The two have already demonstrated their skills at the...

Interested parties have until Wednesday, June 8, to decide who will receive the "Blue Compass" public award for exemplary climate adaptation projects. Of the 240 applications received by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUV) and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), 20 projects have been nominated. The federal "Blue Compass" award is being jointly organized this year for the first time by the...

A ruling by the Higher Administrative Court (OVG) on the calculation of wastewater charges in the town of Oer-Erkenschwick now has consequences for the whole of North Rhine-Westphalia. In this case, a property owner had filed a complaint against a wastewater assessment notice for 2017. According to this, he was supposed to pay around 600 euros in wastewater charges. The OVG came to the conclusion that the wastewater notice was unlawful and also...

Several associations are calling on politicians to continue the KfW grant program "Age-Appropriate Conversion" 455-B with a funding volume of at least 150 million euros annually in the 2022 financial year. The associations criticize the fact that "the current government draft for the 2022 federal budget no longer contains any funds for KfW subsidy funding for the age-appropriate conversion of residential buildings and...

How will real estate prices develop in Germany up to 2035? The results are provided by the "Postbank Wohnatlas 2022" study, for which experts from the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI) have prepared a purchase price forecast. The study shows that house and apartment owners in almost half of all 401 German districts and independent cities can expect to be able to...