More expensive Reside
Having a good, affordable apartment is a fundamental social right, says Chancellor Olaf Scholz. But social aspects don’t play a role in parts of the rental market: It’s about maximizing profits and increasing value, about the big bargaining chip. Which real estate companies are particularly ruthless? And what do tax havens have to do with it? The journalists Charlotte Thielmann and Rabea Schloz pursue these and other questions in the podcast by Detector.fm and RBB. In seven episodes, they break down the topic into a concrete example: the demolition of a post-war building in Berlin-Charlottenburg, in whose place luxury real estate was built. Thielmann talks to people who have lost their homes. She’s looking for those who are moving into the neighborhood because they can afford the new buildings. And she confronts brokers, architects and politicians. In the end, the trail of money leads them to Cyprus. In this way it is possible to unravel a complicated situation. Lilian Koehler
real estate poker
There’s a popular game going on in Germany’s metropolises. But some cards are marked and it is misplayed. In the NDR and RBB podcast, Christoph Twickel goes on a search for clues: Why isn’t there construction on the Holsten area in Hamburg? The former brewery site currently belongs to the real estate group Adler Group. 1200 apartments should be built here. Since 2016, it has changed hands four times and the price has tripled. Twickel talks to deceived real estate buyers and cheated craftsmen: Not only on the Holsten site is there a standstill, but also on other construction sites of the group. Twickel tries to unravel the complicated company network of the Adler Group. He stumbles across a businessman pulling the strings behind the scenes and extremely dubious real estate deals. A tremendous suspicion is hardened: Is Adler’s business model just a crazy Ponzi scheme? In the podcast, the case is reopened in an exciting and informative way for a broad audience. Philip Riessenberger
square meters – landlords among themselves
Sometimes it takes a while for the two landlords to get to the point at hand. But that’s just how it is when two friends meet for a beer. Peter and Florian first mock the recent debate about whether a kind of driver’s license is needed for fair landlords. One rents multi-family houses, the other apartments in a community of owners. “Do you think you’ll pass this driver’s license?” one teases the other. You will then find out how it can drive the landlord to insanity when craftsmen move him. In a conversational tone, Peter and Florian explain everyday and current questions about living and counteract the cliché that landlords only want to cash in – that is the common thread of this podcast on the landlord platform rented.de. How and where can errors creep in in the utility bill? And where can you find in-depth studies on the development of rents? These are typical topics of the talk. Once an expert explains everything about the rentable fitted kitchen. Tenants also benefit from such consequences. Sometimes the two hosts pack too many topics into one episode. But they speak slowly and often joke. This helps, especially with dry matters such as the hydraulic balancing of the heating. This topic is also interesting for tenants. After all, it is about reducing energy costs. Stephanie Schmidt
town talking
How you live is not just a question of your own or rented four walls. The design of the urban space and the infrastructure are also decisive for how well one lives in a street, a district, a city. Christine Grüger from the Freiburg agency Suedlicht, which moderates and organizes planning processes, and Fee Thissen from Urbane Transformation, a creative laboratory in Oberhausen, debate fundamental questions of urban development in their podcast by the Institute for Urban Design and Housing: How are centers changing as a result of the crisis of the retail? In which direction is urban mobility developing? How can empty churches be put to good use? In each episode, the two hosts invite experts to talk to them about how cities and rural areas can and must develop in order to remain livable – or to become so in the first place. They don’t have any easy solutions to offer. Just a simple maxim: cities must be designed, not managed. And that is something that needs to be talked about urgently. Stephen Fisher
