ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the impacts of the parallel patterns of growth and decline on the housing market and related political actions. It draws special attention to the situation in the German state of Hesse, which includes a great variety of regions ranging from the boom region around Frankfurt/Wiesbaden and the northern area around Kassel where there has been a noticeable decline in population. In Germany a main focus of policy is the coordination of energetic modernisation and integrated urban development especially in neighbourhoods of the 1950's and 1960's. The reforms of the German social welfare system began to force smaller households dependent on social welfare into smaller flats. Object-related subsidies are paid to owners that erect or renovate dwellings. Even in the metropolitan regions the new construction of social housing projects has fallen dramatically. In shrinking regions it is extremely problematic to bring large amounts of suburban housing land into the market.
