Hamburg’s latest state-of-the-art residential complex is nearing completion — but not for locals. The €41 million project in the Bahrenfeld district is exclusively reserved for migrant families, reinforcing a growing trend across Germany where asylum seekers receive priority access to housing while German citizens face an ongoing housing crisis.
The six-building complex, built on the former Wichmannstraße sports field, offers 107 modern apartments for 370 asylum seekers. With floor-to-ceiling windows, green roofs, balconies, and underfloor heating, it represents the pinnacle of contemporary urban living. It even includes communal spaces, playgrounds, and on-site social workers to ensure a smooth integration process.
Despite nearly 2,000 people living on the streets in Hamburg — and thousands more struggling with unaffordable rent — not a single local will be allowed to move in. The project is part of the “Living in the Future” initiative, designed exclusively for families “seeking protection with an escape background.”
As reported by Nius, the apartments will only be made available to Germans with an urgency certificate in stages — one building after a year, the rest after three years — but by then, the crisis may have deepened.
Local residents have voiced strong opposition to the project, not only due to its exclusivity but also because of the way it was approved. Normally, such a project would require a public consultation process that takes years, allowing citizens to have a say in urban development. However, in this case, the Hamburg Senate bypassed the standard process, citing the urgent need to house migrants.
Local politician for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) Uwe Batenhorst slammed the plans and accused the city government of deliberating misleading the public.
“The city of Hamburg is trying to mislead citizens by pretending that the approximately 120 new apartments will be available to all Hamburg residents in a few years. For a long time to come, the necessary emergency permit will mainly be given to asylum seekers who are being moved out of their temporary refugee accommodation. In order to be able to receive an emergency permit and thus have the opportunity to rent such cheap social housing, Germans must be at acute risk of homelessness. The lower middle class, who work but earn too little to afford the horrendous rents of new apartments on the free housing market, will be left empty-handed. It would therefore be better to rent at least 60% of the apartments to locals right from the start,” he said.
It’s not the first time Hamburg’s city officials have resorted to legal loopholes to push through migrant housing unwanted by local communities.
Remix News reported in October last year how the city administration had been criticized for bypassing public consultation in the construction of a migrant accommodation facility in Barmbek-Nord.
The project, intended to house 400 asylum seekers, was fast-tracked under the pretense of public safety laws, a move that Alternative for Germany (AfD) parliamentary group leader Dirk Nockemann condemned as “brazen” and “alien to citizens.”
Nockemann and other critics argued that the Senate had invoked public safety laws not for their intended purpose but rather to sidestep community opposition and citizen involvement in local planning.
Hamburg’s situation is not unique. Across Germany, the government is prioritizing migrant accommodation while Germans are increasingly squeezed out of affordable housing.
In Berlin, a 128-apartment social housing complex in Spandau, originally intended for low-income Berliners was approved to first serve 570 asylum seekers indefinitely. While in the Bavarian town of Seeshaupt, near the picturesque Lake Starnberg, the government spent €6 million to construct yet another luxury asylum home.
Meanwhile, Berlin’s schools face budget freezes, with school trips and teacher reimbursements cut, even as the government allocates €1.3 billion more for migrant housing.
The financial burden on taxpayers is also growing. In Hamburg, municipal housing provider Fördern und Wohnen (F&W) has increased its fees for migrant accommodations, now receiving €2,932 per month for a four-person refugee family — far exceeding the €980 that a comparable German family on state benefits receives. As the rents are state-funded, taxpayers foot the bill for inflated rental costs and don’t even get access to the accommodation themselves.
The government insists that German residents will eventually have access to such accommodation, but as seen in Berlin’s Spandau project, no timeline has been provided.
