The cooperative urban land development model in Germany - An effective instrument to support affordable housing

Abstract Several international studies have already mentioned various policy instruments to promote the sociallymixed housing policy that supports many cities to achieve inclusionary housing goals. One of the greatest challenges facing cities in Germany is the current housing shortage, especially of affordable housing and the provision of adequate social infrastructure. The main causes are the strong influx into the cities and the rapidly rising land prices. To solve these problems several German cities have developed and established cooperative urban land development (CULD) models. This study aims to review inclusionary housing policy and present a firm introduction on a land development policy instrument CULD that supports among other targets the creation of affordable housing in Germany. It includes a description of this model that has social, economic and planning goals. Our research approach relies on a content analysis incorporating related literature, city documents and practical projects. Under the CULD system, the increase in land value through public planning and development measures is used to cover the entire development and infrastructure costs. Furthermore, landowners or investors benefitting from urban planning are legally committed to provide a certain quota (e.g. 30%) of their developed property for social housing as well as to ensure socially mixed city districts. There has been some debate on whether this arrangement can produce a sufficient stock of affordable housing. In this article, we argue that local CULD models are powerful land management instruments to achieve socially equitable land-use, and increase the potential to transfer land in such a manner that it can enhance the prosperity of the urban regions. They can utilize the land value increase through urban planning and public infrastructure, for refinancing expenditures of urban developments, and can provide a sufficient stock of affordable housing to local residents to create social mix in cities. In this way, CULDs can make a significant contribution to the economic and social objectives of sustainable urban development.