Housing cooperatives: 300 applicants for one ad

WApartments are a rare commodity, especially in big cities, and cheap ones are particularly popular. When a corresponding offer appears on the website of the Landes-Bau-Genossenschaft (LBG) Württemberg, the phone doesn’t ring and the e-mail inbox keeps filling up. More than 300 interested parties apply for the offer, depending on the location of the apartment, reported Josef Vogel, the commercial director of the Stuttgart-based cooperative, which owns 5,649 apartments spread across Baden-Württemberg. The demand for affordable housing, especially in metropolitan areas, is still high.

Interest in cooperative housing in Germany has been growing for years. For Matthias Zabel, head of department at the housing industry association GdW, there are many reasons for the trend. “Housing cooperatives are increasingly being perceived as a good alternative and an opportunity to secure affordable housing in the long term.” With around 2.2 million managed cooperative apartments nationwide and investments of almost 6 billion euros in existing and new buildings, housing cooperatives are important partners for cities and local trades. New housing construction is also gaining in importance again for the cooperatives.