Research projects

The housing market in Germany is characterised by an increasing shortage of affordable housing, particularly in metropolitan areas. This is the result of various factors, such as population growth, limited building plots, and increased construction costs. These developments make access to adequate housing, especially for disadvantaged groups. Subsidized housing is thus a key policy instrument for counteracting this trend by creating affordable housing and helping households that cannot provide for themselves on the market to gain access to housing.

In North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), housing promotion is regulated by the "Act on the Promotion and Utilization of Housing for the State of NRW" (WFNG NRW). The subsidisation is implemented in cooperation between the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, NRW.BANK, and the municipalities. Various subsidy programmes are used to establish rent and occupancy commitments to ensure both affordable rents and access to publicly subsidised housing for disadvantaged households.

The project "Subsidized Housing in North Rhine-Westphalia: Legal Instruments and Allocation Practices” aims to analyse allocation strategies in publicly subsidised housing construction in more detail. Among other things, it examines how municipalities interpret and apply the legal instruments available to them, what differences can be identified between the allocation strategies of different local authorities in NRW, the extent to which municipalities and the housing sector cooperate in the allocation of publicly subsidised housing, and what criteria are used to select households entitled to public housing. The study is intended to contribute to a better understanding of municipal allocation practices in publicly subsidised housing and provide impetus for the provision of housing for households with fewer resources.