Overview
- The Stadtrat planning committee voted unanimously on Wednesday to create the Umbauagentur 'Büro zu Wohnen', a new municipal office that still needs full-plenum confirmation and will start with twelve staff positions.
- The agency will proactively contact owners, guide projects from concept to permit, advise on subsidies and build a network of technical experts and civil-society actors.
- City officials say the move responds to rising rents and growing population shown in the Wohnungsbericht 2024–2025 and to rising office vacancy, which the mayor and reports put at about 1.8 million square metres or roughly a 10% vacancy rate.
- The plan leans on federal and state tools to make conversions viable, including the federal 'Gewerbe zu Wohnen' subsidy of up to €30,000 per new unit, Bavaria’s 'Leerstand jetzt WOHNEN' project and planning flexibilities such as the 'Bau-Turbo'.
- Officials caution conversions face real limits from high construction costs, a skilled-labour shortage and permitting hurdles so the agency will run five 'young housing' pilots this year and quantify Munich's realistic conversion potential as part of a wider 'Münchner Umbaustrategie' due to the Stadtrat in H2 2026.