The industrial union IG Bau has issued a serious warning regarding the impending risk of widespread housing poverty among retirees. According to Robert Feiger, the head of IG Bau, roughly 5.1 million baby boomers are expected to receive less than €800 per month from state pensions. This group represents about 40 percent of the high-birth-rate generations that will be retiring between this year and 2036. Feiger cautioned that, for most baby boomers, housing costs will ultimately push them into poverty.
These findings stem from a calculation conducted by the Pestel Institute, which was commissioned by IG Bau. The study focused specifically on the baby boomer generations expected to retire between 2026 and 2036. Housing poverty, in this context, means having so little money left after paying for rent that it is barely enough to live on.
The Pestel Institute highlighted that North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous federal state, would be the most affected, potentially seeing over a million baby boomers slipping into housing poverty over the next decade. Furthermore, the Institute’s data shows that currently, more than 760,000 people nationwide are receiving basic social security payments in retirement. This accounts for approximately 4.3 percent of all pensioners, up significantly from the 2.5 percent observed in 2010.
Given this alarming trend, Feiger defined affordable housing as a “social issue number one” advocating strongly for increased construction. He asserted that more new housing stock is the key to stimulating the economy. In his view, if economic growth is the critical issue facing the political coalition, then securing the future of the coalition depends entirely on the construction of new homes.