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New business with mortgage lending has collapsed.
In November it was almost 40 percent down on the previous year.
This means that the volume of new construction financing is at its lowest level for more than 11 years, according to an analysis by Barkow Consulting.
The analysis company has thus set the third negative record in a row.
In absolute figures, the volume of new mortgage lending in November fell by EUR 1.4 billion compared to the previous month to just EUR 13.6 billion.
Compared to the peak in the construction financing business of 32.3 billion euros in March 2022, the decline is almost 60 percent.
Rising interest rates on loans, persistently high inflation and rising construction prices are currently reducing demand for real estate and construction financing.
For example, the construction prices for residential buildings last November were 14.2 percent higher than in November 2021, according to the state statistics office IT.NRW.
The Ifo Institute has been observing a wave of cancellations in residential construction for months.
Many projects no longer pay off for construction companies and developers.
Because many people can no longer afford to buy a house, they switch to the rental market.
As a result, even more people are competing for the already scarce supply of rental apartments.
Experts therefore expect rising rents.
According to data from IW Cologne, asking rents had already risen by 5.8 percent in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
In all federal states, growth was above the average for the third quarter of the past three years.
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