Empty apartments in the Verden district: an alarming balance!

Empty apartments in the Verden district: an alarming balance!

In the district of Verden, the vacancy rate of apartments is over 3.6 percent, which is a solid average compared to other northern German regions. While the city of Hamburg only has a vacancy rate of 2 percent, cities such as Celle and Bad Fallingbostel are fighting with significantly higher odds of 5.8 and 6 percent. Special problem areas are in particular the city of Verden and the municipality of Dörverden, where empty real estate, partly orphaned accommodations from barracks, drive up the overall average. In Verden there are 4.3 percent and 4.6 percent of the apartments in Dörverden.

In order to counteract this trend, the district has launched a living space procurement program. This offers financial incentives to renovate existing properties, with up to 8,000 euros in grants. It remains to be seen whether these measures are sufficient to meet the growing need for living space; 588 applications recently came up on 14 advertised apartments, which underlines the tense situation, www.kreiszeitung.de .