Inner urban development
Future task for local authorities
The challenge
The legislator prescribes a reduction of the land claim. Municipalities are faced with the task of identifying potential urban development potentials and activating them for the real estate market, i.e. actively developing the inner city.
Our digital tool
aREAL® supports municipalities in setting up a database of urban development potentials, maps the owner dialogue in a process-oriented manner and permits simple and targeted marketing.
Our survey on the state of inner development in Germany
The reduction of land consumption from currently around 58 ha per day to 30 ha per day by the year 2030 is laid down in the Federal Government’s sustainability strategy.
On the contrary, land consumption is currently on the rise again in some federal states.
The immovativ GmbH, in cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Innenentwicklung (dgi), would therefore like to create an overview of the extent to which and with which instruments municipalities throughout Germany have already dealt with internal development, where the hurdles and obstacles lie and what they want for the future. One component of this investigation was a comprehensive survey on the state of internal development in Germany, which the two companies had in June 2019.
The survey has now been completed and 340 local authorities from all over Germany took part. Due to the high response rate and the depth of detail of the results, the EBS Real Estate Management Institute under the direction of Prof. Dr. Hennig decided to accompany the study scientifically and to support us accordingly in the evaluation. The results will therefore not be published until around February 2020. We ask all interested parties for patience until then.
From the identification to the marketing of area potentials
Reducing land use by activating inner-local land potentials
In the inner areas of our cities and communities there are large land resources slumbering. The identification and activation of potential inner-city areas, the elimination of vacancies and the creation of new living and working spaces are just some of the topics that local authorities have to deal with today. The background to this is, among other things, building legislation, which stipulates that the designation of new building sites must be weighed up against the potential for internal development. The overriding goal is to limit land consumption in Germany to 30 ha per day in the coming years. However, an interest in inner development is unavoidable for ecological and economic reasons alone.
The potential for inner development is not just classic gaps between buildings – which are often difficult to activate because they are kept by the owners as a reserve of building land for children or grandchildren – but rather:
- Areas used to a lesser extent
- Exterior indoor areas
- post-compaction areas
- brownfields
- topping up potentials
- conversion areas
- vacant properties
Both for municipalities in metropolitan regions, which are desperately looking for new areas for affordable living space, and for cities and municipalities in rural areas, which have to do something about vacancies, the topic of “inner development” is a task for the future.
Reduction of land consumption
The reduction of land consumption from currently around 58 ha per day to 30 ha per day by the year 2030 is laid down in the Federal Government’s sustainability strategy.
At present, land consumption is rising again in some federal states!
Only with a solid data basis and the appropriate digital tools will it be possible to reduce land consumption.
There is great potential in the activation of brownfields.
Processes for active vacancy and fallow land management
The backgrounds for local authorities to actively deal with the issue of internal development are diverse. The most important of these are:
- Ecological and economical handling of the resource “surface”.
- High vacancy rate due to demographic change or relocation to rural areas
- Pressure on the housing market in metropolises and lack of expansion space in outdoor areas
- Requirement in the context of the preparation of a new development plan in the external area
The approach is often very different – this is also due to the fact that there are so far few standardised solutions for internal development and that the starting situation is very heterogeneous for most municipalities. However, the necessary processes are very similar in all administrations, and we will give you a brief overview of them in the following:
SENSITIZE
The cooperation of political bodies and citizens is important. Awareness should be raised through comprehensive public relations work.
IDENTIFICATE
The inner development potentials must be identified. This can be done through semi-automated processes, on-site inspections or knowledge workshops.
DIGITALISING
The identified areas must be recorded in a potential area database and visualised in a potential area register so that all activities remain traceable with regard to the area.
DEFINE TALENTS
Before addressing the owner, the municipality should have a rough idea of the urban development being pursued on the sites. The “talents” of the respective area must therefore be identified.
ADDRESS OWNERS
The decisive building block for the success of the inner development is the address of the owners. We recommend the involvement of an external mediator.
OFFER AREAS
After approval by the owner, areas should also be placed on the market. The best way to do this is to operate your own local real estate exchange.
Background information on internal development
We have compiled the most important questions on the subject of internal development for you.
What is internal development and why is it so important?
The daily land consumption in Germany is currently over 62 ha per day. This corresponds to an area of 88 football pitches, which are sealed daily by residential areas, commercial areas or traffic routes. It is the declared goal of the federal government to limit consumption to around 30 ha per day. This is laid down in the German Sustainability Strategy. For ecological and economic reasons, it makes sense to develop fewer building areas on greenfield sites. This goal is to be achieved by focusing on development in indoor areas. The focus is therefore on building gaps, brownfields, underused areas and post-compaction areas, as well as conversion areas and potential for increasing storeys in order to create new dwellings.
Is there a legal basis for internal development?
With the amendment of the Building Code in 2013, a legal basis for the principle of “internal development before external development” was created for the first time. Paragraph 1a, paragraph 2 of the BauGB states:
Land is to be used sparingly and carefully; in order to reduce the additional use of land for structural uses, the possibilities for the development of the municipality are to be used, in particular by making land available for re-use, redensification and other measures for internal development, and soil sealing is to be limited to the necessary extent. Areas used for agriculture, forestry or residential purposes should only be converted to the extent necessary. The principles set out in sentences 1 and 2 shall be taken into account in the assessment pursuant to § 1 paragraph 7. The necessity of the conversion of areas used for agriculture or as forests shall be justified; in doing so, investigations into the possibilities of internal development shall be taken as a basis, which in particular may include brownfields, vacant buildings, gaps between buildings and other possibilities for subsequent compaction.
In the course of drawing up a development plan for the external area, municipalities must therefore weigh up the potential for internal development. In order to be able to legally identify a development plan, it is therefore necessary to record the inner-local area potential and obtain an overview of which of these areas can be activated for the real estate market – so to speak to prepare a potential area expertise.
Can sufficient living space be created through inner-local development?
Urban development is playing an increasingly important role in Germany. This is also demonstrated by numerous guidelines from ministries and activities of regional associations or districts. Particularly in conurbations, an active focus on the interior can create urgently needed living space – even for low-income families. The metropolitan regions lack more than 1 million apartments. These can only be built by activating indoor areas, while at the same time reducing land consumption. Since the municipalities must in particular seek dialogue with the land owners and develop utilisation concepts, this will become a Herculean task in which the public sector and the real estate industry must work closely together.
Does "inside before outside" also apply in rural areas?
Local authorities in rural areas in particular are struggling with dying out town centres and urban sprawl. Young families prefer to rebuild on the outskirts of the village. More and more entire streets are empty and buildings are falling into disrepair. It is therefore becoming increasingly important for towns and communities in rural areas to actively focus on the interior areas in order to revitalise and enliven the town centres. Ideally, a decision in principle is taken against the designation of new development areas. At the same time, there are different funding pools for federal and state ministries, which the administrations can fall back on if they actively commit themselves to the development of indoor areas.
How can I become active as a local government?
As described above, you are not faced with an easy task if you want to actively deal with the topic. Due to legal requirements and also for economic reasons, however, you should take an active approach to local development. For this it is important to convince first of all the politically responsible persons in your municipality. At the same time, you should create a positive atmosphere by demonstrating at selected objects that area activation can work indoors. It is also important to first create a data basis in a potential area register. Take a look at our best-practice example in Hanau or get in touch with us directly. We would be happy to advise your municipality.
Further links on the subject of internal development
On the following pages you will find further information about internal development:
Resolve the stress triangle in surface activation
In most cases, the activation of inner-local brownfields or vacancies involves a tension triangle between the parties involved, some of whom pursue very different interests. For inner development to succeed, it is important to dissolve this tension triangle in an active dialogue. For this purpose, a proactive approach by the local government makes sense. The participants are:
the municipality, which has planning sovereignty among other things
the owner
potential investors or buyers
In the following we will go into more detail about the initial situation and the interests of the three groups.
The owner
The owner of an interior space or vacant property is the most important participant in the inner development process. Without his or her consent, it will not be possible to activate the space for the real estate market. It is therefore important to find out the reasons why your space has not yet been offered on the market. Among other things, this may have tax reasons, be based on inheritance disputes or false values, or simply be due to the fact that the property is held for children or grandchildren. If an owner wants to go to the market with his property or develop it himself, he often finds no possibility to become self-employed on the other hand. He lacks the knowledge about suitable subsidy programmes, he needs advice in questions of building law and often cannot offer the space in classical real estate portals without further ado because there is a lack of a concrete concept or existing building law.
The investor or buyer
Potential investors or buyers of inner development sites usually face two problems. On the one hand you will not find an overview of the areas available on the market for which you could develop a development concept, on the other hand there is no building right for most of such areas, or there is no clear positioning of the local authorities as to which urban development they would like to see. Without the necessary building law, investors understandably shy away from investment risks in planning and concept development.
The municipality
The municipal administration is responsible for the creation of building rights and does not want to take any money into its hands without the owner’s willingness to cooperate or a concrete building concept from the buyer. At the same time, the urban planning ideas of the local government and the ideas of the owner or investor often differ considerably. A clear positioning regarding the urban development on an area on the part of the municipality is therefore indispensable.
Create data basis
In order to start an active dialogue with owners and potential investors, it is important to collect data. This is already required for internal communication processes in the administration. It is therefore essential to set up a database of potential areas. Find out here how our software solution aREAL can support you in this.
Digital support for internal development processes: With aREAL
With our software aREAL we provide you with a valuable tool to meet the above mentioned challenges of internal development in a professional and efficient way and to actively promote internal development in your community. The aim is to accompany the process of inner city development digitally, to build up a potential area register and to facilitate interdepartmental cooperation.
- Digitize inner development areas
- Manage real estate business data
- Store area potentials
- Controlling the Owner Dialog
- retrieve statistics
aREAL consists of different building blocks with which you can digitally record and manage areas. The software solution is based on modern online software, which can be supplemented by an iPad application for mobile on-site recording. The integration of a vacancy detector is also possible, via which citizens can be actively involved in the identification process.
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