Housing industry on heating costs: “We expect a cost increase of 50 percent”

Housing economy over heating costs
“We expect a cost increase of 50 percent”

07/06/2022, 7:08 p.m

Everything is running out: hospital beds, patience, energy – and also hot water. The first landlords resort to drastic measures that people in the local latitudes are not used to. One suggestion is: showers only at certain times and savings will also have to be made on heating because energy prices are skyrocketing. What seemed unimaginable last winter, more precisely until Russia attacked Ukraine, is now becoming very likely: the Germans could soon be left out in the cold as a result of the reduction in Russian gas supplies. Maren Kern, Board Member of the BBU (Association of Berlin-Brandenburg Housing Companies) and Anne Keilholz, Board Member of the Cologne-based housing construction company GAG Immobilien AG, spoke to ntv.de.

ntv.de: Constantly new challenges for the German housing industry – not only is living space scarce and new construction is dragging along, the Federal Ministry of Economics has declared the alarm level of the “Gas Emergency Plan”. How does your association, your company, govern?

Anne Keilholz: Irrespective of the alarm level, GAG Immobilien AG has already started examining its heating systems and identifying optimization potential. We are confident that by the start of the heating season, the largest and most consuming systems will have been checked and adjusted accordingly. The other systems will follow gradually. As a result, gas consumption can be significantly reduced.

Maren Kern: In view of the rapidly emerging gas crisis, energy must be saved, that’s for sure. The BBU has been supporting its 340 member companies in Berlin-Brandenburg for more than two decades with the ALFA project (Alliance for System Efficiency) on a scientific basis in optimizing their heating systems. In this way, the heating energy requirement can be reduced by 10 to 15 percent with inexpensive measures. We will continue this support. In addition, we advocate a nationwide regulation, on the basis of which a slight reduction in room temperatures would be possible if absolutely necessary. In addition, we continue to support our member companies in raising their tenants’ awareness of consumption-conscious use of energy and in advising them on energy-saving issues. We also warn that the serious increases in energy prices due to the sharp rise in advance payments can put enormous economic pressure on housing companies in particular.

What do you expect from the tenants? The advance payments have to be made by the landlord first. However, the tenants may not yet have really understood what to expect if they are asked to make adjusted advance payments.

Kern: We expect heating costs for tenants to increase by at least 50 percent this year. Calculated for a standard household, the additional costs would be a good 400 euros per year. Against this background, a large number of our member companies have already approached their tenants and urgently recommended that they increase their operating cost advance payments. This problem will be even more urgent for 2023, when the cost increases from 2022 reach the tenants via the utility bills. We therefore appeal to the tenants to build reserves for additional payments in any case.

Keilholz: We regularly provide information on the topic of saving energy. In addition, we make tenants aware of the need to adjust their heating cost advance payments. In the course of the current utility bills, the new advance payments are already being increased by 40 percent. If you want to and can pay more in advance, you should definitely do so.

What about alternative energies? Is now the time to finally rethink?

Keilholz: GAG has already rethought this. With the new “Strategy 2035” we are pursuing the goal of supplying our customers exclusively with renewable energies by 2035. However, in the winter of 2022, fossil fuels, primarily gas, will still be indispensable for heating.

Kern: More electrification of heating is probably the best way to implement in the short term – for example by using electric radiators as an emergency solution that could be operated with green electricity. However, here too the question arises as to the sufficient availability of electrical power or the performance of the power grids when the peak loads are then to be expected. In the case of gas, replacing it with alternatives – such as hydrogen – will certainly take a long time due to the transport and, above all, the production problems. On the other hand, a more radical conversion of heating systems – such as the large-scale use of heat pumps, as advocated by the federal government – or the even greater use of photovoltaics could, as already mentioned, be inhibited in the short and medium term by the acute shortage of skilled workers in the trades and construction industry.

Is it actually possible to check whether tenants are complying with the heating specifications? And can you really tell tenants when they can take a hot shower?

Keilholz: There is currently no legal framework that allows for specifications or restrictions. Unfortunately, we only see the extent to which appeals are effective when we look at consumption.

Sabine Oelmann spoke to Maren Kern and Anne Keilholz