2022

The "freundin.de" portal reveals which colors are currently trending in kitchens. The colors white, green and dove grey are currently in. The colors pink, anthracite and baby blue are no longer in vogue. The portal also gives some reasons why this is the case. White, for example, looks timeless, green radiates freshness and dove gray, also known as taupe, looks very...

Can investors reduce the number of parking spaces required for new residential construction and can this save space if there are subway stations, car-sharing services or rental bike systems in the immediate vicinity? How many parking spaces are still needed? What legal conditions need to be taken into account? The German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) is investigating these questions on behalf of the Bavarian...

At the PCI Alpine Cup in Augsburg, 14 young tilers from 14 nations will be competing against each other from Thursday, July 7 to Friday, July 8. Philip Großkopf from Flensburg and Malte Laurich from Vreden will be competing for Germany. The two already won the PCI Alpine Cup last year and now want to defend their titles. The two have already demonstrated their skills at the...

Interested parties have until Wednesday, June 8, to decide who will receive the "Blue Compass" public award for exemplary climate adaptation projects. Of the 240 applications received by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUV) and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), 20 projects have been nominated. The federal "Blue Compass" award is being jointly organized this year for the first time by the...

A ruling by the Higher Administrative Court (OVG) on the calculation of wastewater charges in the town of Oer-Erkenschwick now has consequences for the whole of North Rhine-Westphalia. In this case, a property owner had filed a complaint against a wastewater assessment notice for 2017. According to this, he was supposed to pay around 600 euros in wastewater charges. The OVG came to the conclusion that the wastewater notice was unlawful and also...

Several associations are calling on politicians to continue the KfW grant program "Age-Appropriate Conversion" 455-B with a funding volume of at least 150 million euros annually in the 2022 financial year. The associations criticize the fact that "the current government draft for the 2022 federal budget no longer contains any funds for KfW subsidy funding for the age-appropriate conversion of residential buildings and...

How will real estate prices develop in Germany up to 2035? The results are provided by the "Postbank Wohnatlas 2022" study, for which experts from the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI) have prepared a purchase price forecast. The study shows that house and apartment owners in almost half of all 401 German districts and independent cities can expect to be able to...

On the "hausberater.de" portal, builders can obtain comprehensive information on various topics such as "Building a house", "Building + modernizing", "Living + furnishing", "Energy + building services", "Property" and "Guide". For house construction, you will find information on construction financing, construction costs and construction planning, among other things. Under the tab Building + Modernizing you will find...

In order to accelerate the heat transition in cities, energy experts from the "Urban Heat Transition" project at the Institute for Ecological Economy Research GmbH (IÖR) recommend a mix of measures: cities should develop spatial heat planning and tap into all sustainable heat potential, such as wastewater heat. They should also expand district heating, create district heating networks and...

Property owners must submit a declaration of assessment between Friday, July 1, 2022, and Monday, October 31, 2022. The reason for this is the property tax reform, which comes into force on January 1, 2025 and will require around 36 million properties to be revalued. According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, property owners of residential properties must provide their tax office with information on the location of the...