IWO network makes a strong case for reconstruction in Ukraine.

IWO has been engaged in Ukraine for many years and has carried out several projects there. We condemn the Russian war of aggression all the more strongly and, together with our partners and our network, are committed to early reconstruction activities.

Since Russia's attack on Ukraine, more than 1.4 million homes have been damaged or destroyed so far. In addition, the housing stock is in a very poor condition, especially in terms of energy, due to mass privatisation in the early 1990s and decades of neglected maintenance and modernisation. In order to stabilise living conditions in Ukraine and support the return of Ukrainians to their homeland, the EU states will have to invest massively in the reconstruction of the destroyed housing stock. The total cost of this is estimated at more than EUR 45 billion.

For reconstruction, Ukraine set itself the motto "Build back better". IWO fully tunes in with this and is committed to restructuring the currently dysfunctional housing market. Due to the destruction of the war, there is a shortage of housing; but above all, due to historical reasons, there has been a shortage of affordable rental housing for a long time.

The establishment of local housing enterprises and cooperatives can help remedy this situation. The development of such housing structures will be the focus of IWO's activities. German housing companies and IWO are ready to accompany the establishment of such housing companies. Furthermore, the cooperation between German and Ukrainian companies should be strengthened.

Our board members, the Gesamtverband deutscher Wohnungsunternehmen GdW and the Berlin housing company Gewobag, are supporting us. One of the first concrete measures is the establishment of a municipal housing company in Lviv in western Ukraine, where there is a very high demand for housing due to the large number of internally displaced persons.

A crucial factor for the implementation of these plans is to train specialists in the field of housing. To this end, IWO is in exchange with its member and long-standing board member, the European Education Center for Housing and Real Estate (EBZ), and is planning to offer training and further education opportunities for Ukrainian refugees in Germany in the topics of energy refurbishment and housing construction.

Reconstruction can only succeed with the necessary expertise in the country itself and a reliable network of local partners. That is why the development and offer of training programmes is a particularly important concern for us.

The knowledge that such trained specialists are urgently needed stems from IWO's many years of work and experience in Ukraine. Following their training and qualification in Germany, Ukrainian participants will be able to apply their newly acquired skills in their home country, and IWO will continue our work in Ukraine together with them. We will follow up our project activities and aim at advising and supporting the reconstruction programme in Ukraine.