Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

Anyone who thinks from 12 to noon clicks Like on your post. My question to you: Where do new apartments come from in your scenario? Are you building some for free? No profit, no new construction. This works excellently in all socialist countries, the thing without profit.

First of all. I am not a minister and accordingly not responsible for solving such problems. But do you still remember Kevin Kühnert’s bold thesis on this topic? A good approach (take a look at Austria, especially Vienna) would be to significantly! increase social housing instead of continuously scaling it down. I am a landlord myself, my rent is, well, just as social as I can afford it. But thanks to a modern flat rented out at a flat rate including heating! I have no problem with additional costs. I am explicitly not saying what exactly the right way is, but I do not want the total predatory capitalism as it prevails in the USA (and we are now very close to it) here. Even the richest capitalist can no longer live in peace if the pressure from the masses due to too great social injustices becomes too great.

Nothing has changed in the delivery quantities, it’s all just in people’s heads.

Tell that to a large coal trader...

Flour is also not all gone because there is none left.

The stock market always trades the future, never the current situation. In Ukraine, there is a massive fuel shortage (not only but especially for agriculture!) as well as a shortage of personnel. The sowing for summer wheat must take place these days, otherwise nothing will work anymore. Last year, about 142 million tons of wheat were traded worldwide. Of that, 22 million tons came from Ukraine! So potentially more than 1/7 of the global imports are missing... with other agricultural goods like sunflower oil it is even worse. There will still be wheat as such, just too little compared to last year and above all significantly more expensive. Similar to truck drivers, construction timber, or coal. That’s why they aren’t gone either.

The whole thing is called a market economy.

Another example. I heat the hot water as part of my heating system. A 500L hot water storage tank is sufficient for the 10 apartments. Since the tank has an input for a photovoltaic heating rod, I considered installing about 6 kW of photovoltaic modules on the roof and installing a DC heating rod, which would lead to a significant reduction in oil consumption.

The costs would roughly amount to, let's say, 10,000 euros. The tenants would save considerable heating costs. I do not live in the building. I am allowed to increase the rent by 8 percent because of this. So 800 euros per year. That would be about 6.50 euros monthly per tenant. Rough estimate. Of those, 5 run to the tenants’ association, 3 sue against the rent increase, the court requests expert reports, etc. Everyone was happy when the modernization levy was reduced from 11 to only 8 percent. But in many cases, it just doesn't add up anymore. And even less so with rising interest rates.

So I am supposed to invest 10,000 euros of my private capital for the tenants. I also pay the tenants’ share of CO² from my taxable income.

Even this investment is cancelled. The tenants get a hike in their advance payments and can then happily claim the money back from the welfare office. None of this is worth it because of 66.50 euros more per month. People’s common sense is no longer present. And I need 20 years to have amortized my investment.

I had always mowed the green areas myself, swept the street, acted as caretaker. I charged 60 euros per apartment per year for that. Then some said they had to run to the tenants’ association because there was no invoice for that. Right. There is none. Now I have a caretaker service that writes a proper invoice and does everything. But the tenants are now paying all of this. 30 euros more in additional costs per month. Not my problem anymore.

In bathroom exhibitions, nothing is ever marked either. But that's just a guess, I don't really know.

Off topic: Do you have an explanation for that? I ask because I was recently referred by our plumbing specialist to a dealer regarding the selection of washbasins, etc., who did not have anything marked and only gave me approximate answers regarding the price (a range of about 800 to 1,200 euros) when I asked. I found that quite unsatisfactory and then didn't buy anything. We need a bathtub, two shower trays, two toilets, and two washbasins, and I don't understand that we as customers are so uninteresting that they "could not" assist us further. We generally make great efforts to support the specialist trade and local retail.

Another example.

Off-topic anecdote from me. ;-) When I still lived in my city rental apartment, a department store next door was renovated for about 6-8 months. This naturally involved noise, dirt, etc. All 9 of my neighbors in the building reduced their rent because of it. Although I had the lowest monthly income of all the tenants in the building, I wouldn't have even thought of doing that and didn’t participate, because I believed (and still do) that the landlord isn’t to blame for the department store next door being renovated. Besides, a nice department store next door can actually increase the residential value, which I appreciated.

Even though I usually don't agree with , he is right this time. What is being done at the moment has the opposite effect. The CO2 charge is based on the house and the tenants' heating behavior. What is the consequence? It’s better to let a single person move in than a family. Lower hot water consumption, more often away...

That’s how it is, and it’s clear where the landlord recoups the CO2 tax they paid themselves...