Left-wing parties demand offensive for social housing

The Left Party in the Saxon state parliament is calling for an offensive for social housing construction. "The number of social housing units completed in 2024 is falling - although the funding that was only re-established in 2017 is slowly starting to have an effect," explained MP Juliane Nagel. Demand is still much greater than construction activity.

According to Nagel, the city of Leipzig estimates its need at 3,450 social housing units per year, while Dresden requires an additional 10,000 units and Großpösna up to 37 units in total. "This is the minimum number of social housing units that are currently needed so that people on low or medium incomes can find an affordable place to live. Housing is a poverty risk in some places."

Budget not exhausted

Nagel considers it problematic that the majority of the budget for social housing was not exhausted in 2024 - a total of 54 million euros remained. The budget was 74.3 million euros. The left-wing parties link this to the crisis in the construction industry. Many projects were probably canceled due to the high construction costs, they said.

In 2024, 315 social housing units were built in Saxony in connection with the subsidized rental housing directive. In the two previous years, the figures were 512 and 557 respectively.

In the opinion of the Left Party, both the rising construction costs and the increasing rents on offer should be adequately taken into account in future. The Ministry of Infrastructure must take the initiative and improve funding conditions in social housing construction so that the available budget can be fully utilized. In addition, the funding volume should be doubled. The Left Party wants to advocate this in the upcoming budget negotiations.