As of: February 29, 2024, 4:41 p.m
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
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The number of building permits has fallen to its lowest level since 2012.
Associations are calling on traffic lights to act quickly in the construction crisis.
Berlin – Alarming figures show how far the construction crisis has already progressed: last year, the number of building permits for new apartments collapsed to its lowest level since 2012.
The authorities in Germany gave the green light to build just 260,100 apartments, the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday.
This is a decrease of 26.6 percent or 94,100 apartments compared to 2022.
The problem: Expensive materials and expensive financing deter many potential home builders and investors.
As a result, commitments for new housing loans at many banks and savings banks fell by 30 to 40 percent in 2023.
The development in building permits is seen as a precursor to how the construction industry will develop.
The number of building permits has fallen to its lowest level since 2012.
© J. Reschke/dpa
Building permits are collapsing – “We are in a deep housing crisis”
The federal government originally set itself the goal of 400,000 apartments annually in order to meet the growing demand, especially in large cities.
According to experts, it is unlikely to be able to do this in 2024 either.
The German Institute for Economic Research, for example, assumes that this target will once again be clearly missed with around 265,000 apartments.
According to calculations by the so-called real estate experts, there is a shortage of more than 600,000 apartments in Germany this year.
The expert panel recently explained that this number will rise to 720,000 by next year and even to 830,000 by 2027.
“We are in a deep housing crisis,” said the President of the Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies, Axel Gedaschko.
Politicians must act quickly.
“We need a large-scale interest subsidy program for affordable housing construction – now.” The so-called construction backlog cannot currently be processed.
“The reality is a paralyzing combination of persistently high construction costs and interest rates combined with a lack of funding,” emphasized Gedaschko.
“Almost no one can build like this anymore.”
The construction industry has been in crisis for a long time.
(Symbolic image) © Laura Ludwig/dpa-tmn
The main association of the German construction industry (HDB) also sees the federal and state governments as having a hand.
You have to take the housing shortage seriously.
HDB managing director Tim-Oliver Müller also sees better conditions for a turnaround in the housing market than last year.
On the one hand, a slight decrease in construction costs is expected in 2024.
On the other hand, at the turn of the year, mortgage interest rates for long terms had already fallen by 0.3 percentage points and the first interest rate steps from the European Central Bank (ECB) were expected in the middle of the year.
“However, the industry needs further investment incentives for more affordable housing construction.”
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The industry sometimes criticizes inadequate funding offers and high government taxes.
This refers to government-related costs when building apartments, such as property transfer tax, sales tax, technical building regulations or energy requirements.
“Building is virtually impossible today,” said the President of the Central Real Estate Committee, Andreas Mattner, recently.
Building permits: sharp decline among private individuals
In the previous year, 214,100 apartments were approved in newly built residential buildings, 29.7 percent fewer than before.
Around 93 percent of building applications for apartments in new residential buildings in Germany are submitted by companies and private individuals.
Companies received 117,700 permits, a good 20 percent less.
For private individuals there was even a decline of 42.2 percent, while the number of building permits based on applications from the public sector fell by 12.1 percent.
According to the statistics office, there was a 39.1 percent decline in building permits for single-family homes last year to 47,600.
A decrease of 48.3 percent to 14,300 apartments was recorded for two-family houses and a decrease of 25.1 percent to 142,600 for multi-family houses.
New construction projects also fell significantly in 2023 for non-residential buildings such as factories and warehouses, office and administrative buildings or agricultural operations.
The measure of construction activity here is the enclosed space.
For non-residential buildings, this fell by 15.7 percent to 199.5 million cubic meters compared to 2022, the lowest value since 2015. There was a decrease of 17.0 percent for factory and workshop buildings and a decrease of 16.0 for warehouses percent and for commercial buildings by 23.3 percent.
At minus 20.9 percent, there was another sharp decline in office and administrative buildings in 2023.
(
lma/Reuters)
With material from dpa