Germany: More and more immigrants – fewer and fewer apartments

Germany is letting hundreds of thousands of immigrants into the country, but due to climate protection, housing construction has plummeted to its lowest level in ten years. Things will get worse, according to the industry.

Berlin - The slump in housing construction is a warning, says the President of the Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies (GdW). Yesterday, the Federal Statistical Office reported that 31.6 percent fewer apartments were built in August than in the same period last year.

GdW President Axel Gedaschko is now making serious accusations against the traffic light coalition: “The federal government had an acute refusal to take notice. A year and a half ago we warned that exactly this situation would occur - but the government didn't want to listen to us," he told Bild. He spoke of a “nightmare”.

400,000 asylum seekers are coming this year
Problem: Germany is allowing more and more immigrants into the country. This year alone there will probably be almost 400,000 asylum seekers, plus tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees. But the federal government has made housing construction so expensive through countless climate protection measures that companies are no longer completing planned houses - the largest company Vonovia alone has 60,000 of them . The reasoning is that the rents cannot refinance the high construction costs.

“Considering the need, permits should increase by half, but instead they will decrease by a third,” said Gedaschko. According to a forecast by his association GdW, there will be a shortage of one million apartments in Germany by 2025.

“Housing shortage is becoming the most pressing problem”
Building Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) had promised up to 400,000 new apartments every year. This target will clearly be missed this year: the number of building permits fell by 28.3 percent in the first eight months compared to the same period last year: only 175,500 apartments will be built. And that probably won't change. Gedaschko: “We can no longer prevent the housing construction collapse.”

The general manager of the Main Association of the German Construction Industry, Tim-Oliver Müller, is also alarmed: “If the government does not take further initiatives beyond the announced funds, the housing shortage will become one of the most pressing political problems of the coming year.”

Source: Junge Freiheit