Social housing in Germany

Social housing is the state-sponsored construction of housing, especially for social groups that cannot meet their housing needs on the free housing market. In addition to the personal conditions, which the tenants in Germany must prove with the residence permit, there is a cost rent, as stipulated in the German Housing Binding Act.

As the number of available social housing units in Germany has been drastically reduced, other possibilities for an adequate housing situation for people are now additionally being used to ensure that people have adequate housing. The self-organisation of the inhabitants plays an important role, because they may have to take care of an apartment that meets all the requirements and does not exceed the amount of the financial assistance.

The Social Housing Promotion Act regulates housing construction and other measures to support households with rented housing and the creation of owner-occupied housing for households who cannot adequately provide themselves with housing on the market. In addition to the creation of affordable housing, the acquisition of owner-occupied residential property for a wide range of population is also to …

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How to buy a house in Germany

The property prices in Germany depends on the location of the property (for example living environment and view), the features of the land and of the building (for example the size, the number of rooms and the type of the house). About fifty percent of the people who rent an apartment want to buy a house, but the costs for a one or two-family house in Germany are on average two thousand five hundred to three thousand euros per square meter. Many people cannot afford that.

To get a mortgage in Germany they must be at least eighteen years old and have equity of at least twenty percent of the mortgage value. Many legal regulations concerning the purchase of a house can be found in the Civil Code.

People who want a mortgage must submit various documents to the bank to prove their creditworthiness. For example, the bank requires the last three salary statements, the last income tax assessment, current pension information and the proof of further loans. Self-employed persons must provide additional evidence, for example an extract from the …

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The Derivatives That Sunk Banks In The Global Crisis

Mortgage-backed securities played a significant role in the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. These securities had attractive interest rates and were given next to perfect ratings by credit rating agencies such as Moodys and Standard and Poor. Large amounts of funding were put into the housing market through the mortgage backed securities and this funding became a cycle. People were looking to buy homes so mortgage companies sold mortgages to banks, which led to banks packaging the mortgages with other investments, and the mortgage-backed securities were sold to investors. The investors’ money created more money for mortgage lenders to offer. 

Since lenders were contributing funds to subprime mortgages, people who have lower credit scores, many of these homeowners began to default on their mortgage payments. In April of 2007, New Century, a U.S. Financial Mortgage Corporation, filed for bankruptcy because of poor mortgage lending decisions. Soon after, Countrywide, the largest U.S. subprime mortgage lender, filed for bankruptcy. Following these two mortgage lenders filing for bankruptcy, U.S. banks’ balance sheets decreased.

While subprime mortgages and mortgage back securities were instruments that …

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Property market and house prices in Wesel, Germany

In Wesel, a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, the prices for a plot of land are currently between ninety and two hundred and forty euros per square meter. For smaller plots of land with a worse location, the prices range from one hundred and fifty to two hundred euros per square meter. Larger plots with a better location cost between two hundred fifty and three hundred fifty euros per square meter. In the last time there was only few changes of the prices for properties in Wesel.

In Wesel itself are only a few plots of land available so that is probably the reason for the price rises of the last years in Wesel and the area around because there are also only few opportunities to get a plot.

The house prices in Wesel currently costs an average 1.850 euro per square meter. Since 2017 the prices increased more than two hundred euros per square meter. The purchase of semi-detached houses costs an average of 317.000 euros and houses for only one family an average of 365.000 euros. The row-end houses …

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Industry in Wesel, Germany

Wesel is a city in Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia with about sixty thousand people. There are some different types of industrial companies. One type is the chemical industry which is strongly represented in Wesel with the bigger companies Altana Chemistry and BYK Chemistry and the LGC Standards and Oxoid. The Altana Chemistry was created in 1977 and has about six thousand five hundred employees now and makes a turnover of more than 2,3 billion euros. The BYK Chemistry is a big company too and employs worldwide more than two thousand three hundred employers, thereof about nine hundred in Wesel. They make a turnover of more than one billion euros per year, so they are a bit smaller than the Altana Chemistry. Both companies are important for the inhabitants, because they need many of them as employees.

One more company in Wesel of a different type is Geberit, a well-known manufacturer of sanitary ceramics. They have six locations in Germany. They produce their products since more than hundred years currently with three hundred employees at the location in Wesel. The company produce …

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The Qualified Mortgage Patch

In less than a year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is letting the “Qualified Mortgage Patch” (QM Patch) expire. Why does this matter for first time buyers?

The QM Patch states that mortgage buyers must have a debt-to income ratio less than or equal to 43% in order to buy a home. This rule was created to protect borrowers from racking up too much debt. Removing the QM patch could have drastic effects for the European economy. Let me explain:

I grew up living in the United States during the Mortgage Crisis of 2007. It started with many investors looking for low risk high reward profits. They turned to the housing market to buy those loans. Banks would convert thousands of marketable securities and turn them into shares for investors to buy. They believed the investments were safe because house prices were rising dramatically during this time and credit unions gave many of these securities AAA ratings. AAA rating is the best rating a house can receive.

Investors loved these loans because they were very profitable. They started pushing the …

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Brexit’s Largest Impact

Uncertainty is the overwhelming feeling that Brexit has brought onto the entirety of the EU. Here in Ireland, we are no exception. The fear of a large economic downturn is looming, and it seems everyone is fixated on what will happen when October 31st comes around.

The Irish economy as a whole was predicted to grow 4.1% in 2019 and forecasted an increase in the GDP of 3.7% in 2020 according to the European Commission. This however was predicted without considering the effect of a hard exit by the UK. A hard exit could bring an economic fall out consisting of lowered income levels, and higher unemployment rates. Experts from the Economic and Social Research Institute suggest that these conditions can lower the intense growth of property prices since the low in 2013. The Central Statistics Office says this growth has been just over 86% within those 6 years. Housing demand is likely to lower, affecting mortgage companies, brokers, and families trying to sell or relocate.

However, the housing industry will likely not be the hardest hit industry from the …

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Pound put on diet, losing weight fast

The price of a pound sterling is based very heavily on what the next few months in the UK hold in regards to Brexit. Currently, the UK is in the middle of electing a new prime minister. As the head of the cabinet and leader of ministers in the executive branch, this person has a significant influence of the political state of the UK. Their actions are bound to affect the price of currency, and already have proven to have done so. 

Within the last week, both conservative candidates who are running for the position of prime minister mentioned that they are both in support of the creation of a hard border in the case that there were to be a no-deal Brexit. Immediately after this debate, the pence dropped significantly in value. 

The pound usually costs around 0.7-0.85 cents to purchase, but as of 16 July you can exchange 90.22 cents for one pound. This is the lowest value that a pence has been in the last 27 years, and is showing trends that indicate the value will continue …

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Irish economy at risk

The National Competitiveness Council, or NCC, is an organization that collects, analyzes, and reports data and statistics about the Irish government. In general, it focuses on comparisons of the growth and sustainability across the European Union. This organization has looked into the sustainability of economic health across a multitude of different scenarios. 

As of late, this organization has noted that the Irish economy is becoming too dependent on a small number of domestic firms that fall within similar sectors of the business market. Although it is always a positive to support your home companies, there are some major issues that may come from this increased reliance. 

To begin, Ireland’s economic dependence has been primarily within the goods and services export sectors. There has been a huge focus on pharmaceutical and chemicals being exported, with around 58pc of total exports in 2018 being in this sector; in 2017 it was at 45pc. Computer services are also dominating the market, making up 43pc in 2018, which was 3pc lower than in 2017. These bulk exports make up a huge part of the …

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Housing and the Changing Demographics of Ireland

In order to solve the housing crisis, policy makers must consider changing demographics and plan for long term methods to resolve the housing crisis. According to Engineer’s Ireland review of housing in the The state of Ireland 2019, projections of future Irish population is increasing in number, age and diversity. The population is expected to grow from 2.78 people in 2017 to between 5.6 to 6.7 million people in 2051. The median forecast was defined as approximately 6.2 million people. An additional 1.48 million people must be housed in the next 32 years.

Future demographic projections are essential in forming adequate long term planning in regard to housing in Ireland. Due to the significant projected increase in population size, there is great demand to increase housing supply and plan accordingly.  The current average size of an Irish household is 2.7 people per home. If the average household size remains the same, the number of homes supplied must amount to at least 548,148 additional units by 2051. This amounts to an average of 15,661 additional housing units must supplied each year …

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