Real estate market
Housing: 30 percent more permits in July
More apartments could be built again in Germany. However, the numbers were also very weak in the same month in the previous year. Is the plus enough to alleviate the housing shortage in cities?
It could go upwards in the crisping housing construction: In July, the authorities in Germany approved the construction and conversion of 22,100 apartments. According to calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, these were 30 percent more than a year earlier. However, the number of approved apartments had also dropped to the lowest value for a July since 2009.
17,800 of the apartments approved in July 2025 are to be built in new buildings – an increase of 33.2 percent in July 2024, as the Wiesbaden statisticians announced. More new living space is created in single -family houses and apartment buildings, while the number of permits decreased in two -family houses.
Upward trend in the year as a whole
The previous annual statistics are positive: from January to July 2025, the new construction and conversion of 131,800 apartments was approved. That was 6.6 percent or 8,200 apartments more than in the first seven months of the previous year.
The number of new permits gives a first indication of the expected construction activity. However, the projects are not all implemented or only addressed with a delay.
Help of the “Bau-Turbo” against the shortage of housing in cities?
Affordable living space is particularly scarce in metropolitan areas. More new apartments are the declared goal of the new federal government. The SPD-led predecessor government had promised 400,000 new apartments in Germany each year, but never achieved this goal.
Last year, 251,900 apartments in Germany had been completed and therefore not as little as since 2015. The incumbent federal government wants to advance the sluggish housing construction with a “construction turbo” via faster permits.
dpa
Source: Stern
