Week in Review: Committee on Urban Development and Housing at Instone 2025

This week, I took the opportunity to reflect on my visit to the project developer Instone Real Estate Group SE at its Frankfurt office. As a member of the Committee on Urban Development and Housing of the Frankfurt Union, I participated in a municipal policy exchange in November, during which key issues related to housing construction, cost developments, and political framework conditions were openly discussed.

In addition to Frankfurt Union politicians Dr. Albrecht Kochsiek (spokesperson for housing policy) and Dr. Frank Somogyi (Chairman of the Committee on Urban Development and Housing), representatives from associations, business, and project development also took part. Representing Instone Real Estate Group SE, Ralf Werner (Managing Director) and Sascha Querbach (Head of the Frankfurt Office) shared concrete insights from their practical project development experience.

The discussion focused on the current state of housing construction in Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region. The key question was why, despite high demand, comparatively little housing is being built. One major issue is the length of planning procedures: development plans in Frankfurt often take six to seven years. In addition, numerous supplementary regulations, as well as high taxes and fees, further increase project costs. The Baulandbeschluss should be critically reviewed, as it makes investments more difficult and renders projects economically less attractive.

From my perspective, the exchange highlighted several pragmatic approaches to enabling faster and more cost-efficient construction. Building permits under Section 34 of the German Federal Building Code (BauGB) could be granted far more frequently and, above all, more simply — without imposing additional requirements on project developers. At the same time, underground parking facilities account for a significant share of construction costs, costs that are often no longer recoverable on the market. Here, more realistic requirements and greater flexibility are needed. DIN standards should also be critically reassessed.

Ronny Kazyska