Building crisis is heading: Where are the promised apartments?

Building crisis is heading: Where are the promised apartments?

In the debate about the acute housing crisis in Germany, Markus Lanz's television broadcast caused great sensation on June 4, 2025. Building expert Matthias Günther found that the construction industry is currently building capacities because the demand was insufficient. Despite a clear need for over 250,000 new residential projects, the construction work is declining. Günther therefore calls for a comprehensive federal government to improve the situation urgently, such as

challenges in housing construction

A large obstacle to housing is the expensive and insufficient building land. In the past 14 years, the prices for construction -ready land have risen by 78 % nationwide. In large cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants, the square meter prices have even tripled. These high property prices drive up the sales and rental prices of apartments and make access to socially acceptable living space, such as the construction industry illustrated.

In addition, municipalities have to show new construction areas, especially in immigration areas. The regulatory framework for housing requires a review because government requirements have further increased costs in recent years. In addition to the energetic standards, which are responsible for around a fifth of the cost increase, nature conservation and soil protection requirements also burden the development costs for building land. With a view to the future, the construction industry is stronger to reduce the costs in the long term.

forecasts and the outlook

Housing construction will also be affected by a continuous decline in the coming years, according to the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin). The construction volume will fall for the fifth year in a row in 2025 and is seven percent below the top value of 2021. In housing construction, a decrease of ten percent below the level of 2021 is predicted, whereby the difference between building requirements and construction work will continue to increase, such as Diw emphasized.

The previous measures to remedy the lack of housing have little effect. An immediate program for social housing is considered urgently necessary to effectively meet the existing challenges. It is to be hoped that comprehensive measures will achieve the planned goals and lead the construction industry out of the crisis.