Living Spaces - Public Opinion Survey of the BBR 2008

Description of the housing situation and satisfaction with the apartment. Housing costs, living environment. Neighbourhood and integration.

Topics: 1. Housing: Degree of urbanisation of the place of residence; living in the city centre or outside; residential location; duration of residence at the place of residence; satisfaction with the place of residence (scalometer); further apartments (multilocality); rhythm of dwelling and purpose of use of the other dwellings; year of moving in and duration of residence in the dwelling; residential status.

2. Housing costs: tenants were asked: rent costs; rent included heating and hot water; heating costs and hot water costs; period of payment for heating and hot water; amount of the heating and hot water costs during this period paid amount; amount of the annual amount for heating and hot water; service charges included in the rent; amount of the monthly lump sum for cold (apportionable) service charges; annual amount for service charges; amount of the modernisation levy and the costs for a car parking space; assessment of rental costs; receipt and amount of housing benefit.
Owners were asked: type of acquisition of ownership (new building, inheritance); government aid (KfW, housing subsidies from the federal states, municipal subsidies, home ownership allowance).

3. Current dwelling and living environment: living space; number of living spaces; assessment of the size of the apartments; equipment corresponds to the needs; age of the building; type of house; structural condition of the house; satisfaction with the dwelling (scalometer); satisfaction with the neighborhood (scalometer); satisfaction with the immediate residential environment (scalometer); usage structure in the residential area; image of the residential area; relatives and friends in the residential area; neighbourly relationship; population groups and social structure in the residential area.

4. Neighbourhood and integration: the relationship between foreigners and Germans in the residential area; reasons for neighbourhood conflicts between Germans and foreigners; attitude towards spatial separation of foreigners and Germans; German or other citizenship; contacts to foreigners and Germans (segregation); intention to move; motives for relocation; relocation preference (target area); intention to relocate to another federal state or abroad; preferred federal state or preferential state; assessment of the personal economic situation; employment status; assessment of own job security.

Demography: sex; age; marital status; household type; cohabitation with a partner; occupational status; employment as part-time or full-time; occupational groups (current or former main activity); employee status, worker status or civil servant status; school leaving certificate; completed vocational training or studies; household size; number of children up to 6 years, from 6 to 13 years, of young people from 14 to 17 years and persons from 18 years of age in the household (household composition); number of income earners in the household; net household income; employment status of others persons in the household or unemployed, pensioners or students in the household; life satisfaction (scalometer).

Additionally coded was: city size; federal state, east/west; weighting factors.