The construction took 19 months and the building contains 76 furnished apartments ranging from one to three rooms at a price of 15 euros per square meter.
The aim of the building is to make Berlin an attractive city for skilled foreign workers to address the problem of skilled labor shortage.
A delegation from the Senate inspected the building. The delegation included Raed Saleh, head of the parliamentary group of the Social Democratic Party, and Senator Stefan Evers, a financial expert from the Christian Democratic Union.
The company’s management is responsible for coordinating with the immigration authorities and recognizing professional qualifications.
According to statements by Saleh and Evers, such offers, in addition to fair wages and good working conditions, contribute to improving Germany’s position in the competition for well-trained skilled workers.
The company has set a two-year period for employees to reside in the building. After two years, employees must obtain other housing on their own from the housing market and vacate their place in the building to make room for new employees.
During the visit of the Senate delegation, a Turkish employee who has been living in the building for eight months and works in the children’s ward of the Charité Hospital opened his 23-square-meter apartment to journalists and the Senate delegation.
The 26-year-old Turkish employee expressed his feeling of comfort in the building, as it makes starting in Germany easier.
In Berlin’s desire to attract skilled foreign workers, the city has provided 5,500 corporate apartments in Berlin for employee accommodation, and the city plans to increase its housing stock for state employees by another 1,000 apartments by 2018.
