Sustainable Home Services in Germany

Abstract
This report results from the project “"Benchmarking Sustainable Services for the Housing Sector in the City of Tomorrow" that aimed at promoting the idea of sustainable home services. Home services can be defined as services complementing housing conditions and as sustainable, when enhancing sustainability of housing. Based on the approach that many key factors for sustainable consumption are closely connected to the context of housing, the IZT analysed housing conditions and relevant home service providers in two German case studies - Berlin as a big city and Kleinmachnow as a small town. This analysis finally resulted in strategies for the promotion of sustainable home services in Germany.
The housing situation in the “tenants city” Berlin represents comparatively good conditions for a sustainable home service provision, as a high population density secures a critical mass of potential customers and the dominating social housing companies have a considerable interest in home service provision. Furthermore, the surplus of rental housing and high vacancy rates lead to a competitive pressure, with the consequence that the Berlin rental market is undergoing a change from a providers market to a customers market. This incites housing companies to improve their service performance in order to gain marketing benefits. These good conditions for a home service provision is actually reflected in a varied home service supply offered by social housing companies and cooperatives.
On the opposite, Kleinmachnow is dominated by owner-occupancy and detached houses. Nearly 85% of the proprietors are private individuals, so most important actors for home service provision are real estate managers and building promoters that concentrate on the sale of property. However, these actors are hardly interested in a long-term provision of home services. Moreover, the only social housing company in Kleinmachnow benefits from serving exclusively the high demand for rental housing. Since the housing situation in Kleinmachnow consequently represents comparatively disadvantageous conditions for a home service provision, there is a need to develop new models of home service provision for private single customers living in owner-occupied dwellings. There is indeed no relevant home service offer in Kleinmachnow.
The analysis of the case studies reflects the German situation in general, which means that rental housing dominated markets provide best conditions for a sustainable home service supply. Therefore, housing companies and cooperatives are the main home service providers in Germany. As only few home services have the potential to raise profits, most housing companies and cooperatives concentrate on services that support customer relationships as well as on social services in neighbourhoods marked by social and infrastructure deficiencies. Housing companies and cooperatives furthermore tend to provide directly services that are closely connected to the core business of renting and maintenance, as they possess the according knowledge.
Public, commercial and non-governmental institutions are only regarded as home service providers, when providing certain service components on site. Public institutions are mainly supporting a sustainable home service supply by consulting and funding sustainable initiatives of NGOs or housing companies. Apart from housing companies and cooperatives, non-governmental organisations are the most important actors for a dissemination of sustainable home services in Germany, since they complement the whole range of home services by activities that are demanded by the public, but do not promise financial profits. The main field of action of commercial home service providers is consulting on their products and services, as well as personal comfort services that relieve residents of uneasy activities or supports entertainment.
Typical cooperations in the German housing sector are collaborations between housing organisations and commercial service providers in profitable service fields on the one hand, and between housing, public and non-governmental organisations in non-profit service fields on the other hand. Both NGOs and housing organisations furthermore integrate residents in service provision.
In order to assess sustainability effects of home services, we developed a sustainability assessment tool within the project that provides a set of indicators for estimating direct and indirect impacts of home services. Applying the tool on their home service portfolio, home service providers are able to relatively assess their service portfolio and initiate discussions in their company. On this basis, home service providers can develop strategies to make their home service portfolio more popular. Furthermore, home service providers can integrate home services in their portfolio with good sustainability performances.