The “100-Euro Apartment”

The apartment was designed in 2016 by Berlin-based tiny-house architect Van Bo Le-Mentzel and is intended as a constructive approach to creating housing quickly, on a large scale, and in an affordable manner in new residential construction.

The apartment is equipped with a mini-kitchen, a private bathroom, and a small kitchen-living area. The sleeping area, featuring a 140 × 200-centimeter mattress, is situated on the ceiling of the bathroom.

This allows multiple functions to be organized within a very compact living space. The proportions are modeled after a tiny house. As is typical for tiny houses, the apartment is only 220 centimeters wide, but at 340 centimeters tall, it’s high enough that even tall people don’t feel cramped.

Not even 10 square meters

And now here’s the catch: The apartment is only 9 square meters in size. For people without tiny house experience, it’s unbelievably small. Smaller than any other apartment in Germany.

The “100-Euro Apartment” is the result of several years of research by the Tiny Foundation, which addresses the questions: What rent is affordable for everyone? How much autonomy and how much community does a person need? What ecological benefits do micro-apartments offer?

The housing crisis

There is currently a shortage of 4,690 apartments in Düsseldorf. Rising construction costs and a shortage of skilled workers mean that not enough new apartments are being built. To combat the shortage of skilled workers, young professionals (trainees) in particular need to find housing in the city. But they can’t find an apartment. A vicious cycle that is already causing alarming conditions: 50 percent of all apprentices drop out of their training. The result: a rise in homelessness. Available apartments are becoming scarcer—and more expensive!

Düsseldorf joins the list of major cities in Germany facing what appears to be an unsolvable housing crisis. As Düsseldorf’s population continues to grow, more than 55,000 new apartments will be needed by 2040. This makes Düsseldorf one of the cities with the highest housing demand in North Rhine-Westphalia.

At the same time, Düsseldorf is among the ten most expensive cities in Germany. The rent for new construction now stands at 16.04 euros per square meter—plus utilities and electricity.

Affordable if ...

A rent is considered affordable if it amounts to less than one-third of household income. An apprentice at a bakery in Düsseldorf earns a salary of 930 euros and can therefore afford a rent (including utilities) of less than one-third of that amount.

For this income group, affordable means a rent (including utilities) of no more than 330 euros. The shortage of affordable housing has become a social issue.

Housing issue = social issue

Although Düsseldorf is the city in North Rhine-Westphalia with the highest average income, homelessness is also an issue here. The latest count revealed more than 700 homeless people. That is an explosive increase of 80 percent compared to previous years.

The number of homeless people nationwide is also rising and is estimated at around 531,600. People without social networks and low incomes are particularly affected: senior women, widowers, apprentices, students, and refugees, but families are also increasingly facing the threat of homelessness due to evictions for owner-occupancy.

If you’d like to read more about the “100 Euro Apartment” and this topic, you can do so in the magazine Kleiner Wohnen.

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The text was written by Van Bo Le-Mentzel. He is the director of the Tiny Foundation and a co-founder as well as an honorary member of the Tiny House Association. The “100 Euro Apartment” was developed by the project development company Gemeinwohlbau. Gemeinwohlbau is an initiative of the non-profit Tiny Foundation and is looking for partners. Anyone interested can join the initiative or invest. www.gemeinwohlbau.de, www.tinyfoundation.org