The detached house remains the most popular form of housing in Germany, but at the same time it is criticised as ecologically problematic and outdated. However, this criticism cannot be confirmed in principle.
The vhw Federal Association for Housing and Urban Development e. V. believes that the arguments against the detached house are far too general and advocates a differentiated reassessment of the detached house. After all, the detached house can and should be an important part of contemporary urban development.
"We want to bring the detached house out of the dustbin of urban development and housing policy discussions. Because when properly refurbished, it has potential for the future," says Bernhard Faller, head of the vhw e. V. forum. Detached houses remain an ideal form of housing, and not just for families. They contribute to wealth creation and retirement provision, play a role in social housing provision, are not significantly worse than apartments of the same size in terms of their carbon footprint, and can be integrated into space-saving housing developments.
A nuanced debate about detached houses in Germany could help to take new aspects of urban development into account. The potential of the existing stock of around 13 million detached houses must be exploited through better planning and building regulations. On the other hand, there are still good reasons to actively pursue the construction of new detached houses as an urban development and housing policy task.
In future, it will be important to make greater use of the potential of the existing stock of single-family homes and to meet the requirements of contemporary urban development with compact new townhouses. These positions are based on the vhw's own research, including two recently published studies that examine the potential of the existing stock of single-family homes, particularly with regard to space-saving use. Selected results are summarised at vhw.de/Einfamilienhaus.
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