The federal government would like to create up to 400,000 apartments per year in Germany. No chance, says the housing industry. She blames the energy crisis and a lack of resources and skilled workers, among other things. what would help Significantly more money from the state.
The housing industry is calling on the federal government to issue new and more realistic construction targets for new housing construction. “We are currently no longer able to create affordable housing in Germany,” says the President of the Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies (GdW), Axel Gedaschko, in the “Rheinische Post”. He cites the energy crisis as the reason for the problems, but there are also material shortages, supply chain problems, an explosion in the cost of materials and an extreme rise in interest rates from 0.8 to almost 4.0 percent in a short period of time.
“There has never been such a rapid deterioration in conditions in recent history,” says Gedaschko. Nevertheless, the government is pouring oil on the fire, criticizes the GdW President, with a view to the fact that new construction subsidies are virtually non-existent.
The bottom line is that apartments with rents between 17 and 20 euros per square meter would be created, says Gedaschko. “This disaster means that more and more new construction projects are being canceled even if planning permission is granted. Our internal surveys suggest that about 70 percent of all planned projects are either canceled completely or at least put on hold for an extended period of time.”
“Currently, what’s in the pipeline is still being built. And then it will become less and less. It’s a brutal stop, but with an announcement.”
Gedaschko dares a bleak prognosis for the goals of the federal government. “Last year Germany fell below 300,000 units in new residential construction. This year we expect a further decline to an estimated 250,000 apartments and next year even less. Maybe only 200,000 apartments. In 2024 it will be even less , if nothing significant happens. So we’re getting further and further away from 400,000.”
Given the huge lack of resources and skilled workers, the government should not keep setting more unattainable goals. “We need a significant increase in funds, starting at five billion euros and then steadily increasing to around ten billion euros,” demands the GdW President. “Affordable housing for the middle of society can only be secured with sufficient new building subsidies.”
At the beginning of December, the construction and real estate lobby presented a list of demands to the federal government and especially to the construction minister Klara Geywitz, asking for more funding and more freedom.
