If you are looking for new ideas, where better to start than on your doorstep? You can find ideas everywhere, location doesn't matter.

 

Urbanization and a lack of housing are always an issue, especially in attractive cities. To do this, I looked at the average construction of multi-storey houses in the city. Many of them, in fact many of the houses have 4 floors or more. Building high was in and created a lot of space in a small space.

 

The increasing number of people moving to big cities means that there is a housing shortage on every corner. That drives prices up. The country and urban development must continuously open up new residential areas. The landscape and nature are lost forever. Almost every new construction project is first categorically blocked by residents, civil movements and conservationists. With applications, all available funds are exhausted. Can you also understand that for 30 years the view of the hinterland was unobstructed and suddenly you should make friends with new development areas?

 

So why not start modernizing all old houses with an outside elevator first? In my estimation, more than 300,000 apartments across the country are not rented because they are inconveniently located on high floors and do not have their own elevator. The apartments from the 3rd floor without elevator are rented, but it takes a lot of time until the apartments are rented.

 

Why can this be interesting?

 

Let's take a look at the needs of the citizens, the mobility of today and in which direction this will move.

 

Sure, houses with elevators are great. When it comes to the question of with or without, you don't have to crack around. Especially young people like to live above the roofs of a city. Why? Of course, the view into the distance. Without an elevator, then rather not.

How do we move today. Barely? The e-scooters and e-bikes have broken the last will to arrange themselves sporty. The way to the car is already too far for some. Whole grocery purchases are delivered to your home. Sombre but comfortable the way a large part of us moves steeply.

 

Now what about the old ones. Up to what age will older people from >70 years still want to leave their apartment where there is no elevator. How many people live in these high floors because you moved in when you were in your 30s or 40s. Nevertheless, everyone fulfilled their duties well into retirement age. At the age of 70, or in the case of many people only at the age of 75 or 80, the walk and the stairs stop. The seniors are more at home, move less and thus become “unhealthy” more quickly. This lifestyle of not moving enough is unhealthy. If elderly people can no longer leave their homes as they wish due to the way they are built, then this is also a severe cut in their quality of life. In return, the mobile care services drum on the cash register counter, which is good business for them. Even for mobile services it is a chore to walk up the many floors. Without a lift, entire streets are affected by vacancies on the upper floors.

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So let's target people aged 70+. If you were to start today with a study and the associated implementation of planning and the need for elevators, then the apartments in the years 2023 - 2030 would be fit for the next 100 years.

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Why would that be a win in so many ways?

 

Cities are modernizing their housing stock for the future in a sustainable way. Cities can downsize plans in part by opening up new building areas. The landscape around the outskirts is preserved. Quality of life can be given back to the seniors who are now living in these apartments without a lift. An expected move to a retirement home can be ruled out until old age. The mobile nursing services can plan their capacities differently. The value of the property and the attractiveness for all apartments from the 3rd floor increases significantly. Injuries and falls in stairwells caused by climbing stairs are reduced. The industry that produces the elevators is happy about the massive new orders on the books. All companies and service providers associated with the construction and maintenance of elevators get a piece of the pie in the long term. A forgotten booming market. Last but not least, this gives some houses a special charm. Fit for the future. The old and the modern combine.

 

Elevators with external assembly are already available from €50,000, it is even easier and cheaper if you order elevators from countries with lower production costs.

With such a large purchase of elevators from 10,000 pieces, you would even bring your own cheaper version onto the market without sacrificing quality.

 

The problem! Not all homes have adequate pedestrian walkway/citizen path width. At least if you don't adapt the current norms. In many cases you should do this. Optionally, if there are parking bays in front of the houses, you could adapt the Bürgerweg to a curved path. That costs 1-1 ½ parking spaces per lift.

At this point it has to be said that the architects of the 1950s either didn't have permission to build as big and freely as they wanted, or they didn't have a clear view that a city could one day burst at the seams. In this respect, then, one can envy many countries. Where 4-lane roads run through the city center in each direction, there are also > 6m or more of pedestrian path widths. Shrinking away the citizen there is easier.

Now, of course, comes the important part. Funding and the potential for savings for the city and communities.

If you take a house with 4 floors, floors 3 and 4 benefit most from future rental income. That means in numbers. A municipality recovers 2-3 apartments per floor. For all ages, including those with disabilities.

Per floor x2 makes 4-6 apartments per house without elevator.

Experts will then find out individually that it is not possible to mount an outside lift on every house.

 

If a municipality wins back 4 apartments on average in this way, the costs are as follows. 4x new apartments = 400.000€. New builds usually have more parties so 6-12 per entrance. So the sum would be a multiple. An elevator for the outer facade costs from €50,000, let's just take an average of €75,000 here.

So €75,000 sounds better than €400,000. Especially when taxpayers' money is made available to promote the modernization and modernization of cities.

Can you win back >100-1000 apartments in small towns? One can!

Much more in big cities? Possibly... Since the public is unfortunately only granted limited access to statistical data free of charge, it is not possible to be more precise. Above all, the provision of real-time data can reduce subsequent work in planning. The room with its existing capacities is rethought.

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Let's look at the Great Dimension in numbers. This example has been calculated for Germany.

300,000 apartments cost x €125,000 = €37,500,000,000 =   € 37.5 billion

This does not include building land - planning and development.

100,000 elevators cost x €80,000 = €8,000,000,000 =         €8 billion.

This already includes some costs for the preparation.

One can assume that with such a large number of outdoor elevators, special conditions will be negotiated with the manufacturers.

These are now approx. gross prices including VAT. So some of the sum flows back.

The saving is about 75%.

With an annual tax waste of 40 billion euros for 40 years and that even in the “D-Mark” times, according to the federal German taxpayers, that would be a project that goes in a different direction.

Numbers don't lie unless manipulated.

 

 

How homeowners benefit financially from this with their residential units is another matter.