Band there is a blatant lack of barrier-free and age-appropriate apartments all over the world. This is the result of an investigation by the Hanoverian Pestel Institute on behalf of the Federal Association of German Building Materials Specialists (BDB), parts of which are available to the newspapers of the Funke media group in advance.
“Germany has an unacceptably large gap in the number of apartments suitable for the elderly,” said Matthias Günther, who headed the study. In fact, around 2.8 million senior households currently need age-appropriate housing. However, there are only around 600,000 low-barrier apartments in which seniors live. At least 3.3 million should be created by 2040.
According to the study, just one in four apartments inhabited by seniors over the age of 65 is completely free of thresholds or uneven floors. In just under 17 percent of the buildings, the apartments occupied by senior citizens could be reached without steps or thresholds. According to this, 22.4 percent of all households with senior citizens have a level access to the shower, only half of the senior households consider the space in the bathroom to be sufficient.
Subsidy instead of interest reduction
The German building materials trade spoke out in favor of subsidy funding. “If you were to promote age-appropriate conversion according to income and measures, with grant packages of up to 7,500 euros per residential unit, you could prevent problems that people face as they get older. Being mobile with a walker or wheelchair within your own four walls is an important point,” said BFB President Katharina Metzger. On the other hand, she criticized the previous model of low-interest KfW loans: “Which 70-year-old still ties a loan to his leg that runs for 30 years?”
The industrial unions for construction, agriculture and the environment (IG BAU) are also pushing for a political change of direction. Germany is facing a “dramatic gray housing shortage,” IG-BAU boss Robert Feiger told the newspapers. When it comes to housing construction, the state is “not at all prepared for the demographic development.” Feiger called for a self-commitment from the housing companies: every fifth apartment that becomes vacant must be renovated to make it age-appropriate. This applies to both municipal and church as well as listed real estate groups.