Zukunftspartnerschaft Wohnen is an urban renewal initiative in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, created in response to the city’s estimated 9,000 vacant apartments. The partnership between the city and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia was set out in November 2022 as a ten-year programme. 311
The initiative addresses a local housing market where many vacant properties are considered unmarketable or uninhabitable because of their condition. Its goal is to remove or improve properties that do not meet housing needs, rather than treating vacancy as a simple shortage of homes. 23
Over ten years, the programme aims to take around 3,000 non-marketable homes off the market through acquisition, demolition or renovation. The SEG page identifies Gelsenkirchen-Süd, Horst and Scholven as areas for targeted acquisition of problem properties; the wider city programme also includes property management and development. 23
Implementation is shared by the City of Gelsenkirchen’s Zukunftspartnerschaft Wohnen office, the municipal housing company ggw and Stadterneuerungsgesellschaft (SEG) Gelsenkirchen. SEG’s dedicated business unit handles property acquisition, management, demolition and renovation. 23 The project is funded by the City of Gelsenkirchen and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. 2
SEG identifies Tobias Clermont, its managing director, and Mario Hofmann, head of the municipal office and a part-time managing director, as leaders of its Zukunftspartnerschaft business unit. 2 The programme’s public start was announced on 7 November 2022; the partnership agreement is dated 17 November 2022. 411