City of Hof real estate campaign with initial results

The real estate campaign, which was launched in 2021, aims to support and advise owners in the renovation and placement of vacant buildings.

Christian Weigand, who has been responsible for the real estate campaign since last year, reported on his work at the building committee meeting. Christian Weigand emphasized that the offers of the city of Hof and the funding opportunities must be made better known in order to further increase the attractiveness of the city area. The focus here is on revitalizing the city centre and enhancing the city's appearance and structure.

Support and funding

Weigand referred to the numerous opportunities that the city of Hof's real estate campaign offers homeowners, in particular the low-cost initial renovation consultation voucher. Property owners can have a professional architectural concept developed for their renovation project. For this purpose, a DENA-certified energy consultant can be combined via the consumer advice center. Reference is also made to the municipal funding programs such as HofFassade, HofGeschäfte and HofGrün in the renovation areas. Another major advantage for those wishing to renovate is that the city is also an advisory and approval office for the BayernLabo housing subsidy. In the future, the real estate campaign plans to introduce a citizens' consultation hour where owners can make an appointment for advice without having to make an appointment in advance.

Refurbishment action days

Weigand also highlighted the active cooperation with the district of Hof, the city and district of Bayreuth and the district of Wunsiedel, which aims to establish a uniform network and information portal. The cooperation in vacancy management was once again able to offer a comprehensive and varied program on the subject of refurbishment as part of this year's "Refurbishment Action Days" - of a total of 23 events in the cooperation area, seven took place in the city of Hof. The number of visitors showed that there is great interest in the topic of refurbishment among the people of Hof. Another high-profile event on the agenda this year is the city of Hof's participation in the "Wohnen, Bauen, Ambiente" trade fair, where the real estate campaign will also be presenting the services it offers.

Lectures at the VHS Hofer Land

A new cooperation with the VHS Hofer Land is already considered an important multiplier for current topics in the field of refurbishment. Many lectures on the areas of activity of the real estate campaign have been acquired for this purpose. The new lecture series will kick off this year: on October 2, 2024, a kick-off event will take place with KfW on the topic of"Promoting energy efficiency in buildings with KfW", to which loan advisors from regional credit institutions will be invited in addition to the residents of Hof. In addition, it was announced that the municipal real estate platform "KIP" is being planned, which, as a neutral real estate exchange, will enable real estate offers to be advertised free of charge, among other things.

Letter campaigns

Finally, Weigand provided information on a large number of neighborhood inspections that have already been carried out and are still to be carried out in the city area, in which vacancies and properties with a negative external impact are located and recorded. Based on the data obtained, letter campaigns are carried out to establish contact with the respective owners. These owners are offered the opportunity to work together to develop solutions for vacant properties in the city of Hof with the help of comprehensive funding advice - particularly in view of the scarce land resources in the city area. The members of the building committee rated the numerous activities of the real estate campaign, which is based in the "Dienstleitungszentrum Bau" in the Technical Town Hall, as very useful and an enrichment for the city of Hof. Christian Weigand's commitment and the far-reaching measures of the real estate campaign contribute significantly to increasing the attractiveness and future viability of the city of Hof. His work is an important step towards revitalizing the city centre and successfully marketing vacant properties.