North Rhine-Westphalia secures 221 apartments for affordable living!

The Ministry of Homeland, Local, Construction and Digitization North Rhine-Westphalia has decided to promote affordable living space. As part of this initiative, occupancy rights and binding extensions for public-funded apartments are purchased in sought-after cities. In Cologne, a total of 481 apartments benefit from this measure, whereby 221 apartments were purchased from GAG AG and are enabled for 260 apartments, such as Land.nrw reported.

The rental price bond for the affected apartments is 7.85 euros per square meter. In the case of binding extensions, this applies to a period of 15 years, while there is a binding of 10 years when purchasing the binding rights. This initiative aims to secure affordable living, especially for people with low incomes. In 2022, the purchase of occupancy rights was also extended to 67 cities and municipalities. The collaboration includes not only GAG AG and the city of Cologne, but also NRW.BANK and the Ministry.

prerequisites and funding conditions

Various conditions must be met for the preservation of funding. The investment location must be within North Rhine-Westphalia, and the total financing of the project must be secured and economically portable. A funding results in rental price and occupancy bonds for the subsidized apartments. When re-creation of living space due to the change in use or expansion, the construction and building costs must be at least 750 euros per square meter of living space, such as the nrw.bank explained. A premature start of construction can only be funded with the approval of the approval authority, while urban planning and technical funding requirements are regulated in detail in the funding guidelines of public living NRW 2024.