The recent growth of all German cities presents municipalities with ever greater challenges. Alongside the creation of supply and transport infrastructure, the provision of housing is one of the main tasks facing towns today.
The significant lack of housing is made clear by the rapidly declining vacancy figures. In almost all major cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants, there is now virtually no vacant space in residential properties. Against this background and the resulting rising rents and purchase prices, municipalities, developers and investors are focussing their attention ever more closely on the construction of residential buildings.
The image of residential high-rises is traditionally characterised by industrial housing constructed in the 1960s to 1980s in districts featuring little social mixing and integration. The experiences of more recent decades - especially in Asia and America - and the technological changes in architecture and building technology mean that today’s towers are state-of-the-art. They appeal to a variety of target groups, from low to very high income classes, aim to offer a high level of integration into urban areas by means of modern mobility systems and increase the value of previously commercially-
used areas within cities, without initiating crowding-out processes.
On the basis of more than 20 European, and over 60 German projects, in the area of high-rise residential developments, this report offers a comparative, if not complete, overview of location criteria, equipment features and target groups in relation to users and investors.
