Rolf Buch, head of the Vonovia housing group, calms the minds of his tenants. He confirms that inflation does not directly affect rent levels. At least this applies to existing tenants. Refurbishments and new buildings are excluded from this, here the prices are significantly higher.
After the outrage about possible rent increases in the wake of high inflation, the head of the Vonovia housing group, Rolf Buch, weakened his statements significantly. “The following applies to existing tenants: The current inflation trend will not have a direct effect on the level of rents,” said Buch in an interview with the business magazine “Capital”. In contrast to consumer goods, such price changes are “not possible” in the “rightly strictly regulated” rental market.
The situation is different for new buildings and after extensive renovations: “We are dealing with significantly increasing prices for building materials, energy and other products, which are noticeable with every renovation and every maintenance.” In addition, there are rising wages. “If prices for new buildings rise, this will have a general effect on the market for new building rentals,” says Buch.
With his statements, Buch is bowing to the massive pressure from politics. Two weeks ago, the manager caused a storm of indignation with statements about rising rents. He initially explained in the podcast: “A business model in which sales do not grow, only costs increase is finite. That is why rents will have to rise.” This is also justifiable, since incomes will also increase. Shortly thereafter, Buch also explained in the “Handelsblatt”: “If inflation is permanently at four percent, rents will have to increase accordingly every year in the future.”
Leading politicians, especially from the SPD and trade unionists, had sharply attacked Buch. SPD boss Lars Klingbeil had warned Buch that the company was “putting itself on the sidelines” with this position.
In a detailed interview with “Capital”, Buch now emphasized that Vonovia “unreservedly supports the rent index”, which protects tenants from significant rent increases. However, Buch demanded more realism from politicians: “We have to bring wishful thinking and reality closer together again: What is feasible and what is not? You can’t raise the requirements, for example in terms of energy efficiency, reduce subsidies and want to build more at the same price.” “Basically,” says Buch, Vonovia’s commitment to not exceeding 2 euros per square meter on rents for renovations will remain pitch. However, he restricted: “With the current additional burdens that arise for the energetic renovation, we will also have to make exceptions, I have to say that quite frankly.”
With a view to the situation on the construction sites, Buch said: “We are currently experiencing a hurricane: rising construction prices, no building materials, no construction companies, rising interest rates and all the old problems such as missing building permits and long waiting times”. It takes his group an average of ten years from the initial planning to moving into a new house. In this respect, the federal government’s new construction targets of 400,000 new apartments per year are “right, but ambitious”. And in view of the many war refugees from Ukraine, the country needs “more like 500,000 new apartments every year”.
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