75 years Gewobau Marburg: milestones and future of living space acquisition!

75 years Gewobau Marburg: milestones and future of living space acquisition!

Die non-profit Wohnungsbau GmbH Marburg-Lahn, better known as Gewobau, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. The company was founded to create living space for refugees and evacuated. The official entry in the commercial register was made on January 26, 1950 after the Marburg city council was founded in May 1947. The university city of Marburg held 51% of the shares.

As early as 1954, the first tenant moved into a residential building in the Erlenring 20, where the cold rent was DM 47 at this time, i.e. 1 DM or 50 pfennigs per square meter. In comparison, the current cold rent is around 5.91 euros per square meter, which corresponds to almost DM 12. The average rental price at Gewobau today is 12.56 euros per square meter.

Current rental prices and administration

The Gewobau manages a total of 2,750 apartments in various districts of Marburg, including 780 publicly funded social housing, which are subject to a rental price and occupancy binding. The cheapest apartment is located in Schwanallee and costs 2.04 euros per square meter, while the highest rent in Magdeburger Straße is EUR 10.85 per square meter. In the past five years, Gewobau has added 107 new apartments and two row houses as well as 84 old people's home places and a barrier -free doctor's office through a roof opening on Sudetenstrasse.

An important characteristic of the Gewobau are the almost 100 installed photovoltaic systems that make the company one of the largest electricity producers in Marburg. In addition, modernization projects are currently in full swing, including the energetic renovation of 48 apartments on the old Kirchhainer Weg and on Schenkendorfweg. About 80% of the apartments are heated with gas, while pellet heating and heat pumps are used for the rest.

rental report and demographic developments

In the rental report 2021 of the Gewobau, which has documented the entrances and extracts in Marburg since 2015, a decline in the incoming of households with a non-German mother tongue was determined. This shows that demographic change affects the housing market by giving an increase in small households. Gewobau attaches particular importance to rental of households with children, while the influence of covid-19 pandemic on rental life is hardly noticeable. The company manages around 10% of the Marburg inventory of apartments in apartment buildings, and the average rent for classic rental apartments is 5.27 euros per square meter.

The creation of the first qualified rent index for Marburg in early 2023 is intended to help determine the local comparison rent and ensure more transparency in the rental price structure. The rents of the past six years have been examined to create a data basis that applies to apartments and rented houses on the open market. Except of socially funded apartments and dormitories are excluded. The rent index is updated every two years and the first publication is planned for September 16, 2024.

In view of an increase in living space requirements by ten square meters per inhabitant in the past 30 years, the living space has become increasingly scarce. This leads to a high need for single and two-room apartments, especially for families who are not entitled to subsidized apartments. Despite the challenges, Gewobau shows with its current projects that it is actively working to strengthen and modernize the housing market in Marburg.