As of: March 18, 2024, 8:57 p.m
By: Amy Walker
Comments
Press
Split
There is still a lack of living space and even more.
But the traffic light has still not found a solution to the construction crisis.
The announced “construction turbo” is stuck in several places.
Berlin - The new year will continue to be just as depressing as the last: building permits for apartments also collapsed in January 2024, by 23.5 percent compared to the previous year, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Monday (March 18).
The situation is particularly dramatic for single-family homes: a slump of 42.7 percent at the beginning of the year.
The lack of housing throughout the country is and remains one of the most pressing problems of the time.
Given the drama of the situation, one would think that political action would be the top priority.
But that doesn't seem to be the case in the traffic light coalition: The "construction turbo" announced six months ago, which promised relief for the industry, new support programs for prospective buyers and a streamlining of the approval process, has probably disappeared into the bowels of the Ministry of Construction.
The CDU and CSU also have responsibility for the construction crisis
To be fair, it has to be said: It is not just the traffic light government that is responsible for the stalling in the construction turbo.
The aspect of tax relief for the construction industry is part of the Growth Opportunities Act, which is currently being blocked by the Union in the Federal Council.
The law could have come into force a month ago and contributed to relief - but the CDU-led states are currently using the project as a means of exerting pressure against the traffic lights.
A new attempt to pass the law will be launched on March 22nd.
But the Growth Opportunities Act is only one component of the “construction turbo” that was announced at the end of September 2023 by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Construction Minister Klara Geywitz (both SPD).
Also announced were: A temporary change to the building code, which was intended to relieve the burden on authorities and partially abolish the approval process for building projects;
a “Young Buys Old” funding program that was intended to support the acquisition of existing properties in need of renovation;
the creation of the building type E (E for “simple”), which was intended to simplify the expensive new building standard so that construction could be cheaper.
Construction workers are working on the shell of a construction site for apartments and social housing.
© Bernd Weißbrod/dpa
All of these projects have not made much progress since the announcement, most of the plans are still in departmental coordination, so they are still being discussed internally.
In addition, the construction minister reported in an interview with
Welt am Sonntag
that the funding for the “climate-friendly new construction” program will not last until the end of the year if demand remains as it has been.
Due to the need to make savings in the federal budget, it is considered unlikely that the program would then be increased again.
There is a risk of a funding disaster that could push housing construction further into the valley.
Construction industry frustrated, bankruptcies occur
The construction industry has been correspondingly frustrated for months.
It's been a long time since it was really high interest rates and material costs that slowed down housing construction in the country.
“It is more a lack of trust in reliable politics.
Steel and insulation materials, for example, have become significantly cheaper in the last 18 months, and long-term interest rates have fallen by around one percent,” says the President of the construction industry in Hesse, Thomas Reimann, to
Ippen.Media.
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“A large number of building permits are in the drawers of project developers and property developers.
In many cases, the decision to implement these approved projects will only be finalized when signals of reliability are sent in Berlin.
We need a much more sustainable policy in Germany,” continued Reimann.
What's worse is the fact that companies in the country are now slowly running out of steam - and are going bankrupt.
The wave of bankruptcies in construction has particularly affected project developers, i.e. those who support a construction project, especially in the initial phase.
At the end of 2023, the Deutsche Handwerks-Zeitung
reported
that one in five insolvencies can currently be attributed to the construction industry.