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Germany's housing landscape: Genossenschaftsgesetz + 2,237 cooperatives
Germany is built on the 1889 Genossenschaftsgesetz — federal cooperative-society legislation that established the legal frame for Wohnungsbaugenossenschaften (housing cooperatives) and has held with periodic amendments since. The Weimar-era 1924 Hauszinssteuer programme funded dozens of new cooperatives; the post-WWII reconstruction expanded the federation through both West and East German systems; reunification integrated over 1,100 East-Bloc Wohnungsbaugenossenschaften under the federal frame. Today, 2,237 active cooperatives — the densest cooperative-housing federation in Europe by count — hold 2.2 million apartments nationally.
The tenure mix tells the rest of the story. Around 54.5% of Germany's 83.5 million residents are tenants (the highest renter share among large Western European countries). 45.5% are owner-occupied; 6% are public housing (about 2.6 million apartments held by Landeseigene Wohnungsbaugesellschaften and municipal landlords); 5.1% are cooperative — 2.2 million apartments across 2,237 Wohnungsbaugenossenschaften; the rest is private rental.
- Owner-occupier45.5%
- Public housing6.0%
- Cooperative5.1%
- Private rental43.4%
Of the dwellings shown above, 2.3% additionally carry a Sozialbindung covenant — a regulatory layer attached to privately-owned apartments built with public subsidy. Most public housing is held by Landeseigene Wohnungsbaugesellschaften (LWUs) and municipal landlords.
Social housing in Germany operates through two tracks. The first is the LWU + municipal-landlord stock — Landeseigene Wohnungsbaugesellschaften like Berlin's degewo + HOWOGE + Gewobag, Hamburg's SAGA, Munich's GWG, Frankfurt's ABG — owned by Bundesländer or municipalities, let at administered rents. The second is the Sozialer Wohnungsbau system: privately-owned apartments built with public subsidy carrying a binding Sozialbindung covenant for a 15-30 year period. Cooperatives sit alongside both, permanently outside the speculative market.
Rent spread: public LWU rents €6.40, cooperative €6.80, all-stock median €8.90, new contracts €14.20, furnished €19.50 per square metre (national median). The cooperative + LWU floor sits substantially below the all-stock median; new-contract private rentals reflect the post-2015 tight-market dynamics across Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Cologne and similar.
- Public housing (LWU)baseline€6.40
- Cooperative+€0.40 (+6%) vs Public housing (LWU)€6.80
- All-stock median+€2.50 (+39%) vs Public housing (LWU)€8.90
- New contracts+€7.80 (+122%) vs Public housing (LWU)€14.20
- Furnished (gross)+€13.10 (+205%) vs Public housing (LWU)€19.50
Net-cold monthly rent per m² (national median). The cooperative + LWU floor sits below the all-stock median; new-contract private rentals run substantially above. Source: Statistisches Bundesamt, GdW, IBB
Underused stock: residential vacancy 4.3%, office vacancy 5.8% with 22.04 million vacant square metres — substantial in absolute terms, concentrated in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg. Net migration 1.46 million inbound per year — Germany absorbs the largest annual migration of any European country.
Deutschland hat mit über zweitausendzweihundert aktiven Wohnungsbaugenossenschaften das zahlenmäßig dichteste Genossenschafts-Netzwerk Europas — Erbe des 1889 verabschiedeten Genossenschaftsgesetzes.
Total housing stock: 43.4 million dwellings.
The 5.1% cooperative share — the densest federation in Europe by count — is the part of the housing landscape with the deepest local roots and the subject of the next section.
