BERLIN, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The sustainable use of building land should be promoted at all levels of government, according to recommendations presented by the German government's expert commission on building land on Tuesday.
The Sustainable Building Land Mobilization and Soil Policy - Building Land Commission was set up by German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer from the Christian Social Union party to investigate the possibility of finding plots for residential construction more quickly and easily in order to curb rent increases in Germany.
Broad-based and practical measures were needed to combat Germany's housing shortage, including budgetary adjustments, an "active real estate policy" in municipalities as well as a better application of existing legal instruments, the Commission said.
"We need good soil reserves as well as compact, legally compliant planning and construction processes, starting with municipal planning decisions and ending with the construction of apartments," said Marco Wanderwitz, parliamentary state secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community and chairman of the Commission.
The commission recommended that the German government, federal states and municipalities make their own plots of land available at a reduced price for affordable housing construction.
In addition, German municipalities should increasingly make use of the so-called building requirement, which allows cities to oblige landowners to build on or else sell their land.
"Land is not a commodity that can be reproduced at will, but a valuable resource," said Dorothee Stapelfeldt, deputy chairwoman of the Commission.
Germany's serious lack of affordable living space demands "a sustainable and socially oriented urban development and land policy from all actors involved," stressed Stapelfeldt.
In the debate on housing shortages, German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) President Maria Krautzberger called for restrictions on the use of concrete in undeveloped areas.
"There would be enough space in the cities" and already sealed areas, such as car parks, could be better used, said Krautzberger here on Tuesday.
"Car traffic requires a disproportionate amount of space" in German cities and the long-term goal should be to focus instead on cycling, public transport and car-sharing, the UBA president said.
The government aims to reduce land consumption to less than 30 hectares per day by 2030 from around 60 hectares per day today.
