The rush for ALDI housing

Around 60% of ALDI SÜD's near 40 Munich stores now sit inside mixed-use buildings, with homes, offices, gyms, and shops sharing the same site.

"We're looking for closeness to our customers,"

says Justus Rehn, who heads ALDI SÜD's Munich office, pointing to commuters and lunch-break shoppers alongside residents as the audience these locations serve. Munich, he adds, has "huge potential," though the path from first conversations to construction can take years, as it did with the nine-year planning process behind Quartier 5 in Haar.

ALDI SÜD has already built housing above its stores in Giesing and Ramersdorf, and is now developing a mixed-use building with municipal housing company GWG in Sendling, where a 2023 completion is planned for 180 flats, including units for trainees, city employees, and families, alongside a nursery, a restaurant, and temporary housing.

"We want to help create affordable housing and strengthen and revitalise the neighbourhood,"

says Rehn. In Pasing-Obermenzing, ALDI SÜD anchors a small shopping centre inside Belvedere, a 164-unit condominium development built by München-Bau as the gateway to a new 33-hectare residential quarter for around 5,500 people.