Since October 1, 2025, a statute prohibiting the misuse of housing has been in effect in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. This legal instrument pursues a clear goal: the set of rules should help ease the situation on the real estate market. The conversion of residential premises into apartments for tourists is now strictly limited. Additionally, sanctions can be applied in cases where apartments are left vacant. Nevertheless, exceptions exist that allow for non-residential use under certain conditions. In the first months after the rules came into force, it became clear that the administration needed to provide clarifications.
Vacant Housing Remains a Violation of the Rules
The issue concerns the creation of replacement housing stock. The statute allows, in exceptional cases, for the issuance of a permit to use resort real estate if new housing is provided as compensation. The administration received several inquiries regarding whether the return to service of long-vacant areas falls under this definition. One owner submitted a corresponding application, promising in return to renovate a vacant building and release it to the market.
Employees of the relevant construction department took a critical view of this. After all, the vacancy of housing itself is a factor that the statute is intended to prevent. Ludwig Berger, the responsible executive, spoke quite sharply at a meeting of the Committee for Construction and Environmental Protection. “This is essentially nonsense,” he noted. In his opinion: “This should apply only to effectively newly created living space.” In other words: new construction or the erection of additional areas in existing buildings (for example, by converting an attic), which involves significant costs. Michael Simon (SPD) agreed with this assessment. “Housing vacancy is misuse in itself,” he emphasized. Hannes Bieler (CSU), on the contrary, expressed concerns: “Many people would rather leave apartments empty than rent them out.”
With one dissenting vote, the committee decided that only the creation of new residential areas will be counted as replacement housing stock according to the statute.Source: tz
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