Baubestands

Baubestands denotes the total stock of built structures within a defined geographic area at a given time. It includes residential, commercial, industrial, public and infrastructural buildings as well as other habitable or usable structures. The term is used in urban and regional planning to describe the existing built environment and to guide renewal, housing supply, land use, and infrastructure planning. It is contrasted with new construction and with planned or proposed development.

Key metrics used to characterize the Baubestand include the number of buildings, Brutto-Geschossfläche (BGF, gross floor area), usable floor area, age distribution, building type distribution, and energy performance indicators. Data are drawn from cadastral records, land registers, building surveys, census data, and municipal planning documents, often compiled in periodic building stock inventories (Baubestandserhebungen).

Applications: In planning, the Baubestand provides a baseline for housing supply assessments, retrofit and energy-efficiency programs, infrastructure planning, and historic preservation. It helps evaluate renewal potential, vacancy rates, retrofit backlogs, and resilience.

Challenges: Data gaps, inconsistent definitions, and privacy constraints can affect accuracy. Stock changes due to demolition, conversion, and new construction require regular updates. Regional differences in data collection limit comparability, but standardized methods are increasingly used to enable cross-area analyses.