Bodenpolitik und gewollter Leerstand

Abstract

In the public perception, volitional vacancy is not yet sufficiently understood as a land policy problem. In the high-price segment of private residential property, volitional vacancy is closely linked to questioning the outcome of people amassing apartments in prime locations without spending much time there. It is after all their own private decision how they invest their money and what they do with their private property. In order to broaden the spectrum of future and innovative development potentials, a continuous and in-depth examination of developments relevant to the land market is required. This is precisely where this exploratory work comes in, helping to better understand a phenomenon that has been little studied to date - volitional vacancy. Volitional vacancy can have advantages and disadvantages for both the beneficiaries and those affected. The root of the land policy problem is not the phenomenon itself, but rather the interaction between the various actors involved in land policy. One group of actors, the owners, have unique and previously overlooked characteristics that contribute to the problem. As property owners, they value their freedom and the ability to make decisions regarding their land, yet they also have a responsibility to consider the greater good of the community. If landowners of residential properties leave their property unused or underused, they contriubute to housing scarcity and potentially increase tension on the housing markets. Such volitional vacant properties can be observed on many scales, from within individual cities to regions of entire countries. The central research question of this paper is: Is ownership of unoccupied housing in prime locations worth protecting? In summary, the answer is that intentional vacancy is protected under real estate law, but whether intentional vacancy in the wake of large-scale speculative investment projects is worth protecting is more controversial.