A maximum of half possible
Real estate industry shreds housing plan
7/3/2023 1:07 p.m
The federal government is still sticking to the plan to build 400,000 new apartments in Germany every year. But the real estate industry is not playing along. The immense costs make this impossible. She assumes a maximum of half.
According to the federal government, 400,000 new apartments are needed every year to combat the housing shortage – the industry now only considers half of them to be realizable every year. “Under the current political and economic conditions, the socially oriented housing companies can no longer invest in affordable housing”, said the President of the Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies (GdW), Axel Gedaschko, in Berlin.
Instead of the government’s target of 400,000 new homes, the number of homes being built will continue to decline, with only 200,000 new homes being completed each year.
From GdW’s point of view, one reason for this is the sharp rise in construction prices. “In the first quarter of 2023, the increase in construction prices for residential buildings was 15.3 percent compared to the previous year, while the general price development in the same period was only 8.7 percent,” said the association. For tense housing markets, the GdW forecasts based on a model calculation with cost increases for an apartment of 38 percent between mid-2021 and the end of this year.
The number of apartments completed nationwide will therefore fall to just over 240,000 units this year and to 214,000 apartments next year. According to the Federal Statistical Office, 295,300 apartments were completed nationwide last year. That was 0.6 percent more than the year before. However, the goal of the federal government was clearly missed.