Lidl to open housing complex on…Sylt

Discount supermarket chain Lidl has announced that it will open a housing complex on Sylt, an island off the North Sea coast often frequented by Germany’s super-rich.

Lidl will be landlord on Sylt

Lidl has announced that it will build a housing complex above one of its existing branches on Sylt. The new supermarket-cum-housing complex covers 16.000 square metres and will include a refurbished ground-floor “state-of-the-art store” with 15 housing units above.

The 15 homes will be between 44 and 78 square metres of floor space and available for anyone to rent on a permanent rental contract. Alongside the housing units, Lidl will add a service centre, including a pharmacy, health and beauty shop, and regional businesses. 

The complex, christened “Nii Kiarwai”, will be entirely self-sufficient, with a large photovoltaic installation on the roof. The supermarket chain will also capture waste heat from refrigerators to heat the building. The car park will have 184 parking spaces, including six electric-vehicle charging points.

Sylt mayor thanks Lidl for helping with housing crisis

With construction now underway, Sylt mayor Tina Haltermann (independent) voiced her support for the project. “This is a groundbreaking step for the local retail sector on Sylt,” Haltermann said, according to a Lidl press release.

“Lidl is impressively demonstrating how modern retail can be designed to minimise land use and be directly linked to the urgently needed housing on our island.” It remains unclear how much rent Lidl will charge tenants for a flat in the new unit.

Like many places in Germany, Sylt is seeing an affordable housing crisis. In this case, the crisis has been compounded by the island’s popularity as a holiday destination and illegal holiday home rentals.

According to the Mietpreisspiegel Tabelle, tenants across Germany were paying an average of 11,60 euros per square metre to rent an existing home in 2025 and an average of 13,60 euros per square metre for a new build. According to ImmoScout24, tenants in Sylt were paying an average of 21,24 euros per square metre.