The German Real Estate Association IVD took over the rotating chairmanship of the Federal Association of the Real Estate Industry Germany (BID) on 1 July. He succeeds the Central Real Estate Committee (ZIA), which most recently held the chairmanship. This means that IVD President Dirk Wohltorf will head the alliance of associations for one year, in which BFW, GdW, IVD, VDIV, vdp and ZIA work together. The handover of office took place at the Parliamentary Society in Berlin in the presence of construction and housing politicians from the German Bundestag.
The outgoing BID Chairwoman, ZIA President Iris Schöberl, said at the handover: “The BID is a strong common voice of the real estate industry. And in the past year, it has also provided important impetus for more housing construction, better investment conditions and practical framework conditions. This unity will remain crucial in the future. I wish Dirk Wohltorf every success, a happy hand and joy in this task as chairman of the BID. I am convinced that you will further strengthen the common voice of the real estate industry with your commitment and vision.”
The new BID chairman Wohltorf emphasised: “I would like to thank Iris Schöberl for her courageous personal commitment as chairwoman, which has been good for the industry. The assumption of office comes at a challenging political and economic stage. We can see that the federal government wants to make a new start in construction and housing policy. The planned protection against expropriation of private housing stock is a decisive signal for property ownership and investment security. We also expressly welcome the action plan of Federal Building Minister Verena Hubertz and the announced pact for ownership, which the real estate industry has been calling for for many years. If residential property is to become accessible again for broader sections of the population, there is no way around relief from real estate transfer tax.”
Wohltorf made it clear that the industry is relying on fast and reliable implementation: “The direction is right. But there is still a long way to go to boost housing construction. The requirements for construction are too high, permits take too long, investors need planning security and trust again, and too many families are still failing to acquire their own four walls because of the high real estate transfer tax and the difficult financing conditions. The BID associations contribute their practical experience to politics. We want to continue the dialogue with the Federal Government in a spirit of trust.” According to the new BID chairman, the goal remains to bring the positions of the industry into the political process in a bundled manner and to appear with one voice vis-à-vis politics, the public and other sectors of the economy.
