Funding for social housing increased by around 20 percent

Saxony is increasing funding for social housing in Dresden and Leipzig by an average of 20 percent. The cabinet in Dresden approved the improved funding conditions on Tuesday, and some points of the existing guidelines were amended. According to Regional Development Minister Thomas Schmidt (CDU), this is the Free State's response to the sharp rise in construction and financing costs. Social housing construction should still be possible: "This will certainly help many a new housing project that is already planned but is currently on the back burner due to the cost situation."

Dresden and Leipzig are currently the only cities where social housing construction plays a role due to high rents. A guideline for affordable rental housing applies to all other cities. This should make it possible to carry out renovations despite low rental income. The new subsidy guideline is also intended to expand the group of people entitled to subsidies.

The change to the guideline is also intended to create an incentive for particularly ecological construction methods, it was said. At the same time, a second funding channel will be introduced for rental housing. It applies to apartments with slightly higher rents, but which are still significantly lower than privately financed housing. Tenants whose income is up to 25 percent above the income threshold for social housing are eligible for this. The cities are to decide on the distribution of funds between the two funding options on their own.

According to Schmidt, more than 130 million euros have been approved for the promotion of social housing construction in Saxony since 2018 via this directive. This means that almost 3,000 social housing units have been created or are currently under construction. "We want to continue this success story with the new version of the directive," said Schmidt.