When looking for a place to live a lot comes into play size design neighborhood proximity to work school or to friends and family but often the most decisive factor is price and that depends on supply demand Interest Rates demographic changes geographic location Overall Economic growth you get the picture its complicated but the simple truth is Everyone Needs a place to call home and a combination of those factors i mentioned can make finding a lasting shelter difficult for many our theme for todays edition of made in germany is the housing shortage as well see its a big problem. Well start right here in berlin its a city with the fastest rising property prices in the world in the early 2000 the cash strapped german capital sold off huge chunks of Public Housing to private interests the dearth of Affordable Housing has only worsened since then berlin has become a battleground between renters Real Estate Investors developers and politicians. Tenants in berlin are fighting for their rights in an unprecedented move they have founded an initiative demanding that some of the property owned by large Real Estate Companies be nationalized. They gathered 77000. 00 signatures for a referendum petition for. The referendum question its based on article 15 of the german basic law it states that property may be transferred to Public Ownership for the purpose of socialization this article is never been invoked. In terms of history and the civil law and also the market economy we see this is are really i think of all we call upon the City Government and the federal government to put an immediate stop to the whole affair. The campaign wants to see Real Estate Companies that own over 3000 Properties Sell them to the city this would entail ownership of some 245000 rental apartments transferred to a public agency. 10 the companies would receive compensation to the tune of double digit billions funds that could be used for new construction projects. The german capital is witnessing a battle over Affordable Housing between tenants real estate owners and politicians. Living spaces in seriously short supply has a shortfall of tens of thousands of apartments speculation is on the rise the last decade has seen rents double. At the same time as a construction the entire neighborhoods are sprouting up like here in the district of. This housing complex is brand new tenants are paying up to 16 euros per square meter a studio apartment cost 350000. 00 euros making it financially out of reach to many but there just arent enough Affordable Apartments for rent owned by Public Housing associations like this one a 54 square meter apartment for 500. 00 euros a month in the heart of the city. Every place like this will always attracts a lot of interest. 50 people. Will do ok share price everything. I want more than a roof over my head i want to enjoy life thats a factor too. Difficult. With. Its famously Affordable Housing helped make berlin the vibrant capital it is today but now rising rents are pricing people out of the in a city. The left wing government is making efforts to control the situation the senator for urban development in housing is defending the rights of the renters shed like to see a rent cap in acted before the end of the year this would seem monthly rent capped at a cost of between 6. 10 euros per square meter depending on the buildings age and overall condition there rent free means would remain in place for 5 years. Tenants would have a legal right to demand a reduction in rent and landlords who refuse will face fines as of yet its unclear if the. Draw floors legitimate. Critics fear the plan would scare off Real Estate Investors and that the move would actually worsen the housing crisis. Property owners this but amount to a partial expropriation because they dont longer be able to charge the rent theyve charged so far but it would be reduced in keeping with the rent thats socialist housing policy and has nothing to do with Market Forces start. Then you might know someone who owns an apartment and is renting it out naturally has a right to do so in a financially viable way but they dont have a right to an unlimited return at the expense of the citys social fabric at the expense of the tenants existential security and theres no denying that the Current Situation is strained to the point of the rent cap is to find the right balance again. Finding that balance is also the motivation underlying this construction project at alexanderplatz. The east german house touched artistic is a prime piece of real estate worth a tidy 15000000 years its undergoing an extensive renovation when its ready it wont be a Shopping Mall or a luxury hotel it will contain 300. 00 affordable of hartmanns Small Businesses facilities such as Child Care Centers and studios for artists the property was bought by the city which is renting space to the district of mrs Housing Authority and an artists collective among others. Market is driven by profit but in this case that just doesnt work what we need in berlin is Affordable Housing and whats being billed as expensive if it goes on like this we wont have any culturally diverse spaces and not the necessary social infrastructure we need to put a stop to this situation which is spiralling out of control. Of course the Property Market needs investors but political effort. Must be made to ensure the market remains fat and berlin new avenues for housing up being explored. 3rd to adequate housing is enshrined in the universal declaration of human rights adopted in 1988 but we knew long before that that shelter is essential to individual survival and social cohesion heres a brief look at the history of housing. A roof over your head that protects you from the cold heat wind and rain. Living space is a basic human need. Cave dwellers and early humans some places where they can protect themselves from predators and enemies in time humans learn to build their own dwellings whether in the tropics the arctic the desert or the mountains. For a long time humans lived near their place of work. Farmers began settling down they turned their dwellings into homes. With the industrialisation of the 19th century living space became a commodity which was sold or rented out. There was high demand in urban centers. Sometimes entire families lived in one room apartment houses were built row on row to cover the demand. Companies build housing for their employees right next to the factories later entire cities were built to house workers they started commuting to and from work. Today living space varies from place to place and depends on what you can afford a luxury home in the u. S. Can be over 4500 square meters large in germany the average house has around 150 square meters of space in overpopulated cities like hong kong apartments are often smaller than 20 square meters millions of people worldwide cant afford any place to live theyre homeless or they live in slums in the indian city of mumbai for example there are around 1000000 homeless people. In many cities around the world rent prices are going through the roof in Europe Zurich paris. And london are some of the most expensive locations in berlin rentals and Purchase Prices have doubled over the past 10 years. Living spaces have also become objects for speculators and that can pose a threat to the human right to adequate housing. Now adequate housing may be a human right but cheap housing isnt at least thats one standard argument Property Developer christoph is of the view that having invested in berlin means hes entitled to reap the rewards and that he then has every right to reinvest these said rewards in building as many luxury apartments in the city as he can but as ordinary berliners are priced out of the Property Market should grow not be allowed to keep doing that our reporter chris and chris save us how to few questions for a. Its late but christophe groaners just calling it a day on this prelim building site the real estate tycoon is always busy but hes found time for a brief interview. Hes one of the richest men in germany and he didnt inherit his money he made it himself his company is turning this High Rise Office building into luxury apartments. Do you think gentrification is going to change berlin a lot it intervenes here wont. I think palin will retain its identity theres no law that says we have a right to live in beautiful old apartments with stucco on the ceiling for me is 6 euros a square meter its not a fundamental right and. There is a fundamental right to housing going yes to housing but who says it has to be found in the heart of the city in future Affordable Housing might be on the outskirts rather than downtown. In time. Tell us about the building were in how did you find it before and take tom. Nobody was interested in it its an old Office Building and was riddled with asbestos so we approached the local authorities and proposed turning it into apartments. The Purchase Price was 21000000 euro his company is investing a further 50000000 on transforming it ripping out the old offices installing a new facade and building all those luxury interiors. The building will have a generous 4 year and a dorm and of course the lower stories will sell for 5000. 00 euros a square metre higher up twice that amount grown or sees him self as a pioneer a very High End Construction projects in berlin. Typos and after 2008 everybody said stay away from berlin its a nightmare you know so i headed to berlin and invested lots of money they said i was not for. I invested Counter Cyclical e that have been proved right by 2012 at the latest it became clear that berlin was set to boom. Isnt it have you doubled in size isnt way more than doubled since the financial crisis and what theyre trying to create how much bigger are you 10 times as big. As investments in several cities across germany he says he has a staff of over 700. 00 and builds about 1500. 00 apartments a year 2 thirds are to rent one 3rd he sells he also bought this derelict Office Building and surrounding plot in berlin local authorities said the condition that 30 percent must be rent controlled housing for low income people so going to have to sell part of the property to the city of berlin. Capital to you feel any obligations to society yes it is the capitalists have obligations my Company Never invest in property where people are already living we only buy empty buildings high rises and Office Buildings we launch greenfield projects and start from scratch and i make it easy for myself by avoiding the issue and the corresponding conflicts. But is it really so simple more and more luxury housing is going up across more and more ordinary people are being pushed out because of soaring rents is this the kind of city breadwinners want or deserve. Now traditions and customs vary from country to country when it comes to property some place great importance on passing the family home on from generation to generation but not everyone is so attached to property take a look. At. A home of ones own for most people in europe thats a reality in italy 72 percent own their homes which is higher than the european average of 69 percent germans however are last on the list of homeowners in the e. U. Germany the land of leasers. If now the whole point of a roof over your head is to provide protection from the elements and possible danger but what if the place you call home is a hazard in itself in indias Financial Capital by building collapses have caused the deaths of many people in recent years our n. P. R. Correspondent sagna found a car went to mumbai to find out more. Young has lived here for much of her life this building a century old was built just as world war one ended. Its a tough climb for the 55 year old chronic need but that isnt home in what. She says the building which is 80 tenants is crumbling. Recently this slab of stone came loose and fitted seriously injuring a neighbor on the ground floor. In the one room that yankee shares with the family cracks run through the wall the plaster spilling and bamboo sticks prop up the ceiling the monsoon rains make the structure riskier each year young pieces shes repeatedly complained to the landlord with little success. You know there was no way that i live in fear that the building will collapse my children are away at work all day so at least theyre safe my husband and i stay at home we could be killed but the way i see it were old weve lived our lives. Leaving the police isnt an option for young whose family owns a modest living tenants like b. Just 10. 00 a month here in grand some even less. Thats due to a colonial era law that limits rains for Old Buildings like this one but that also means owners get little money to invest in repairs leaving the structures to rot many parts of mumbai like your income a home to old rickety Properties Data shows that are more than 14000 buildings in the city that had risk of collapse due to a lack of maintenance and government apathy only or the c. E. O. Of 4 storey building collapsed at the spot killing more than a dozen people and injuring many more disasters of this kind on to uncommon in the city. One buys chronic housing was also linked to its dense population and scarcity of land the city is surrounded by water on 3 sites and has no space to grow. More than 40 percent of its 18000000 residents live in slums and shantytowns experts say at the heart of the problem of the citys sky high realistic values and a powerful lobby. Has sort of in the last 20 years for the situation. Building it would mean that there will be an option off redevelopment for the private developer and also because then they have much on most of these buildings out in the island city. The prices of. New. Cities. Even for residents who do decide to run down buildings in these prime areas pins on to much better. Sunday the family used to live in an old building in south mumbai until it partially collapsed one day during repairs. The governments and the residents here to the so called transit camp to wait till the building was demolished and rebuilt she says the current through to has developed leaks and gets water logged out of the monsoon. Thats that limited when we moved in here we thought it would take a year or 2 at most but now 13 years have gone by and we have just somehow continued living here in the hope that someday well get our own home. For young home is a much loved but dangerous place option would be to get out and lead a much broader life in a far flung suburb either way its not much of a choice. As populations expand and cities grow ever denser optimal use of space is becoming increasingly essential but the architects and urban planners envisioning the Residential Projects of the future may be able to draw on lessons of the past in 1900 Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus School of architecture famous for minimalism and functionality 100 years on his influence is still shaping the spaces where we live and work. What urban housing look like in the future. Good spaces and good light supply is tight and prices are soaring. Colorful cities but dense and. Urban design needs to be reinvented. Systematically question every time. Designing Affordable Apartment is a new venture for architect. Building a complex of 140. 00 units in the german city of. Good living space and attractive architecture for citizens with no income it was commissioned by the local authorities. Until now designing Single Family homes for the wealthy has been his speciality this is a new challenge clarity of line and form rectilinear a minimalist aesthetic than its work has been inspired by the bauhaus. Did an entirely new movement thats as relevant as ever to this day. What inspires us most is the clarity and the holistic approach of the bauhaus. A group of people came together to create something new in their teaching and in their practice ranging from skyscrapers to products to graphics every area of design. For the benefit of ordinary people. In their subsidized Housing Project will be 6 euros 50 per square meter very moderate nowadays in a city like. But its not only about being cheap. Everybody has the right to good architecture and good design. Germany lacks Affordable Housing experts estimate it would take well over a 1000000 units to meet demand and construction has lagged way behind rents are high and rising in cities like munich. There was an acute housing shortage a century ago as well with math of overcrowding and terrible sanitary conditions in gloomy tenements as here in berlin poor people often also worked in the spaces where they lived. The Bauhaus Movement was founded in 1919 and soon came to champion a vision of society and design that was radically new even revolutionary it wanted to create good has thing for everybody. To achieve that goal to develop standardized units and industrialized production to bring down costs. It was at the forefront of modernist architecture championed simple forms free of ornament large windows and light colo