Shrinking Villages – Vacancy Management and Image Development

The interest in vacantness in Germany was dominated by urban shrinkage for a long time. Federal aid programs like Stadtumbau Ost and West supported urban remodeling, deconstruction and development in cities and medium-sized towns. In the course of the contemporary trend of reurbanization, a turnaround seems to be accomplished, at least for the larger cities a steady growth can be noticed. The rural regions show the contrary picture. During the 1990s these areas profited from catch-up effects in the construction of single-family homes, but due to the difficult situation on the labour market, the trend could not be perpetuated. Even young families, formerly attracted by bounteous space and green surroundings, tend to favor an urban lifestyle nowadays. So, neither the natural population decline due to demographic effects, nor the exodus of education and labour migrants can be compensated.This rural shrinkage causes several problems for municipalities as well as for property owners. Obviously, the weakened demand for real estate drives a devaluation of property. Long-term vacancies usually cause visual and structural decay, which also reduce the attractiveness of surroundings and facilitates a negative image in the public. The decline in rural population leads to an under-usage of social and technical infrastructure. Schools and Shops are therefore closed, public transport timetables are thinned out and the fixed maintenance cost for sewage or water supply have to be carried by less households. In this way, shrinking regions are in danger to enter a vicious circle of decay and therefore further shrinkage.In recent years, various measures to secure services to the public in far-flung areas have been developed. Also, a range of tools to manage vacancy, like real estate cadastres or online vacancy detectors, were applied in different regions.Since the problems differ strongly between each region, village and even property, procedures are not easily transferable. Taking a closer look at a wide range of measures and the individual challenges, a toolbox is to be created to counter rural exodus and the devaluation of property, to strengthen local identity and improve the public image, as well as to secure the supply of the remaining population with goods and services. This integrated set of measures tackles the local issues on the different levels of municipality, village and single property. Due to its flexible applicability the toolbox is transferable widely.