The housing shortage and competition for employees are causing companies to become providers of housing again. However, many things are different than before.
There are currently fewer than 100,000 employee apartments in Germany, after many units were sold in the 1980s.
Large companies such as Allianz, Bosch and Deutsche Bahn are investing again in employee housing, and the federal government is planning to build 8,000 units.
Employee apartments are increasingly being rented instead of purchased.
CoRE Solutions offers financing models with real estate leasing that protect the company's equity ratio and enable long-term usage rights for employee apartments.
Munich. The problem is familiar to both career starters and skilled workers: the job offer in a distant city sounds tempting, but there is a willingness to move. What is missing is an affordable apartment within a reasonable distance from work.
Especially in metropolitan areas, more and more companies are creating employee apartments again. The situation is still not comparable to the situation in the 1970s. The market today has different requirements, attracts new players and demands innovative financing models.
“The range of interested parties extends from the health and care sector to the construction industry, the service sector, hotels, restaurants and retail,” says Ulrich Creydt, Managing Director of the Ypsilon Group. The tax consultant and auditing company supports companies in questions relating to employee housing.
Factory and employee housing reached its peak in the 1970s. At that time there were around 450,000 of them. Extensive sales followed in the 1980s, including the federal government selling around 100,000 apartments. Numerous companies also significantly reduced their inventories, so that recently, according to estimates by the Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies (GDW), there were fewer than 100,000 units.
The number is now increasing again. Large corporations such as Allianz, Bosch, BASF, Volkswagen and Deutsche Bahn are investing again, and the federal government also wants to build 8,000 employee apartments. Nevertheless, the difference to before is big.
Location, size and amenities are crucial
In past decades, corporations often created entire housing estates around their production facilities, but today the focus is on other aspects in order to help employees find housing. Location, size and equipment, as well as the advantage over competitors in the fight for skilled workers, have priority. In addition, accounting and tax aspects must be taken into account.
This poses challenges, especially for small and medium-sized companies. “For trainees, a double room is often enough, singles need small apartments, and a family with children needs a sufficiently large apartment,” reports Dennis Rahneberg, CEO of Accepta Sozialbetriebe, from practical experience.
The social and care company from Freiburg is currently providing living space for 60 of its approximately 500 employees. The aim is to be able to offer housing to a quarter of employees in the future.
The most important thing is to take into account the proximity to the workplace and the surrounding area. “The working hours in nursing are unfavorable for traveling by public transport, and the location must not be a social barrier,” says Rahneberg. For nursing staff he recruits from abroad, it should be a fully furnished and move-in-ready apartment.
First confirmation of accommodation, then visa
In addition, confirmation of accommodation is crucial for these employees to receive a visa. In practice, the care provider from the Black Forest is already planning additional employee apartments for new buildings, as well as for the expansion of existing buildings. Accepta also rents apartments from external sources.
This not only solves the problem of accommodation for employees, the accommodation through the employer also has tax advantages. The costs can be up to a third less than the usual local rent without there being any monetary benefit.
With a normal rent of 1200 euros, the rent can be reduced to up to 800 euros without incurring taxes. “Ultimately, this is one of the few options for employers to give a bonus to employees without the state getting involved,” says Ypsilon Group managing director Creydt.
In addition to being tailored to the needs of employees, the ownership structure of the apartments themselves is also different today than it used to be. While it was once normal for companies to own them, it is now increasingly common for residential units to be rented.
Providers such as Havens Living, among others, have specialized in this. The company, which has locations in Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt, says it rented around 400 apartments to employers within a year. The model is similar to that of boarding houses with furniture, service and community spirit.
Especially for employees from abroad, who often only come to Germany for a certain period of time or for a special project, these accommodations are often the only way to find a place to stay quickly and easily. “As a rule, companies ask for their employees; they often come from the IT industry, construction or the financial sector,” says Nora Gehlen from International Campus, the mother of Havens Living.
The “Expat Insider 2026” survey by the Internations platform shows that Germany has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to attracting foreign skilled workers. When asked about their experiences, Germany only ranks second to last among 31 countries. There is therefore an urgent need for improvement, especially since the top three countries Panama, Mexico and Thailand score points primarily because of affordable housing.
The financing of employee housing has also changed significantly compared to previous decades. According to Klaus Busch, this is essentially because the returns that can be achieved with real estate are below those of the core business. Busch is managing director of CoRE Solutions, a company focused on financing employee housing through real estate leasing and leasing-like structures.
Apartment leasing protects the balance sheet
His business idea is to relieve interested companies of financing. If companies build new apartments themselves, this requires a lot of outside capital. This puts a strain on the equity ratio, which is why financing models outside the balance sheet are in demand. With the leasing model, companies can act as lessees and acquire a long-term right of use for their employees and rent out the living space. At the end of the leasing period, the lessee has the option of purchasing the apartment.
This leasing model is still in a niche. On the customer side, however, it is often large IT companies that are interested in these apartments, reports Busch. In Munich, for example, Google and Microsoft have large locations; Apple is building its new European center for chip design in the city center and, according to its own statements, wants to hire hundreds of new employees there. There are already discussions with family offices, the asset managers of entrepreneurial families, as investors.
