City presents new housing policy strategies

The city of Jena pursues the goal of sustainable and socially balanced development of the housing market and housing construction. Social, economic and ecological aspects are to be implemented simultaneously and on an equal footing. This long-term orientation of municipal housing policy combines various resolutions passed by the city council in 2019 and supplements them to form a strategy paper.

The city council instructed the city administration to expand the scope of action for housing policy in Jena. This also included evaluating municipal land for apartment buildings based on construction and usage concepts in the future and not just on the land price offered. In future, the highest bidder will no longer automatically be awarded the contract when selling municipal land.

"With the concept award for all municipal plots in multi-storey residential construction, we are laying the foundation for high-quality and affordable construction, in which a variety of innovative forms of housing can come to fruition," said Christian Gerlitz, Mayor and Head of Urban Development.

This also paves the way for building cooperatives - which are currently in vogue - as communal living is also gaining in esteem in modern urban societies.

"We have seen in the "Erlenhöfe" project of the WG Carl Zeiss north of Karl-Liebknecht-Straße how well this can work and what advantages we can gain, not only for socially just urban development in a growing city," Gerlitz continued.

In addition to a minimum quota for social housing of 20%, ecological and architectural standards can also be taken into account on a regular basis. The list of criteria initially leaves open whether the price should also be taken into account with a maximum of 25% or whether only qualitative criteria should be applied. The criteria are defined in detail before each sale. This ensures transparent decision-making, as all bidders are aware of the conditions. Following the resolution by the city council, the concept award can be used for the first time for properties in the "Am Oelste" residential area in Zwätzen.