The Saxon housing industry lacks sufficient funds for investment. Mirjam Philipp, head of the Association of Saxon Housing Cooperatives, said that housing cooperatives would have to invest another 17 billion euros just to meet the climate neutrality requirements in Germany in 2045. The association members have invested the same amount since 1990. For tenants, this would mean an increase in rent of two to three euros per square meter. As a socially oriented landlord, however, one can only increase moderately.
According to Philipp, the average net rent in a cooperative apartment in Saxony is 5.62 euros. If you deduct all the costs for vacancies, repayments, equity return and other things, only two cents remain as a surplus that can be used for investments. "We have to operate in such a way that we don't have our backs to the wall, because we are responsible for our tenants and members." Over the past ten years, the companies have only increased rents by an average of 1.9 percent and have therefore remained well below inflation.
