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Construction site in Hamburg: targets missed several times
Photo: Marcus Brandt/dpa
In order to combat the housing shortage, 400,000 new apartments would have to be built every year. At least so far, that is the official number that is circulating and it is far off the mark.
But from Chancellor Olaf Scholz's point of view, the target mark represents the lower limit of demand. 400,000 apartments are “more likely to be too few than too many,” said Scholz at a citizens’ dialogue in Stahnsdorf, Brandenburg.
There are a number of reasons why the target has not yet been achieved. This includes, among other things, a psychological problem caused by a rapid rise in interest rates in recent years, but also an "incredible miscalculation" due to the construction of too many expensive apartments, said Scholz.
Another problem is bureaucratic regulations, which Construction Minister Klara Geywitz is now dismantling step by step, said Scholz.
At the same time, the SPD politician called on municipalities to help in the effort to build more apartments. But it is also crucial: “There cannot be more apartments without more building land, not without more density,” said Scholz.
When it comes to designating building land, the main responsibility lies not with the federal government or the state governments, but with the municipalities.
The federal government has set itself the goal of building 100,000 social housing units in Germany every year; according to estimates, only a quarter of these will be built nationwide in 2022.
Federal Construction Minister Klara Geywitz announced in December that she was expecting 265,000 new apartments in 2024. The SPD politician was referring to a forecast from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). Around 270,000 apartments will have been completed by the end of 2023.
mmq/dpa