Where to live, how to live, how to pay? The housing market remains extremely tight and has been one of the country’s biggest problems for years. Anna Planken and Daniel Aßmann explore how the housing crisis is affecting people in North Rhine-Westphalia and what solutions they are finding. Why are there millions of square meters of unused building space, right in the middle of our cities? The solution is up above! By adding stories to existing buildings, urgently needed living space can be created. In the Netherlands, this is called “optoppen,” and Rotterdam proves that progress is much faster there than it is here.

Particularly high construction costs make a solution on the real estate market nearly impossible. A developer in Dortmund could build hundreds of more affordable apartments without the usual standard of comfort. Yet the long-discussed “Building Type E”—E for “simple”—still cannot be built in North Rhine-Westphalia. Anna Planken speaks with the Minister of Construction and asks where the bottleneck lies. Have high-rise housing estates failed, must they be demolished, and with them, further living space destroyed? The White Giant in Dortmund is being demolished, and we speak with the local residents who are staying there nonetheless.

More and more people are seeking alternative solutions to afford housing collectively. In the Rhineland, the so-called “Mietshaussyndikat” is also playing an increasingly important role. Over several months, we follow people who are creating solutions for their new living arrangements. Bad Sassendorf, the oldest municipality in North Rhine-Westphalia, offers a glimpse into the future. It will be more than ten years before other towns look this old. But why are more and more young people moving there?

Anyone looking for a flat today has a problem. The housing market is empty, while at the same time housing construction is in a permanent crisis. How are people in North Rhine-Westphalia dealing with this? In the new episode ‘How does NRW live?’, Anna Planken and Daniel Aßmann go to where housing is becoming a problem. Where is it particularly bad and what does that do to the tenants? What solutions and alternatives do people find when it comes to renting, building and living? Because sometimes housing is completely rethought.

In Cologne-Chorweiler, rented flats are degenerating into a pure yield factor. Apartment blocks that have not been renovated for decades and tenants who are desperately at the mercy of the whole thing. What does the responsible owner, a successful investment fund, have to say about the problems? Unaffordable housing in the cities and, at the same time, empty office buildings and commercial premises. Can department stores be turned into new flats by converting them instead of demolishing them? In the Sauerland region, Anna Planken and Daniel Aßmann are helping to build a modular house from the wood of dead spruce trees. Bark beetle wood that first plunged a forestry company into an existential crisis and is now the starting point for an idea to create new living space. Taking action yourself, like a mayor in an open-cast lignite mining area. He buys back a ghost village from RWE. But does anyone still want to live there today?

Click here for the show in the WDR MEDIA LIBRARY.

For many people in North Rhine-Westphalia, the dream of owning a home or renting an affordable apartment is in danger of fading away. Rising rents and mortgage rates, coupled with uncertain energy costs and a shortage of housing—living expenses are becoming increasingly expensive.

Anna Planken and Daniel Aßmann are traveling across North Rhine-Westphalia in a tiny house on wheels and want to find out how people live here, what solutions exist for affordable housing, and whether construction can be more environmentally friendly. In Dortmund, they witness what happens when a real estate company goes under, leaving more than 400 apartments vacant for the past six years. In Münster, they investigate why the city is banning the construction of new single-family homes.

In addition, “How does NRW live?” takes a look at the future of housing: Two brothers in Heek have succeeded in recycling concrete—a major contributor to climate change—and using it for sustainable construction—a first in Europe. Students in Düsseldorf have built a climate-friendly and sustainable house.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, Anna and Daniel visit the first Tiny House settlement in the district of Gütersloh They test whether it is possible to live well in just a few square meters. In Herne, they show an old bunker that is being turned into a modern, sustainable housing project.