Building for urban success? Project development and social exclusivity in Germany Frankfurt/main as a case study

Abstract

In the postwar era, homeownership in Germany has been the exception in big cities and renting the norm. This is changing nowadays. In this chapter, it is asked why this development takes place and what effects are triggered in this process. This requires an examination of the decline of cities in the 1980s due to deindustrialization processes as well as of answers to this development which consisted of building residential property for the upper middle class. In respect to the city of Frankfurt, the recent increase in transactions in condominiums and potential impacts are analyzed.