The Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies (GdW) has warned that rising costs have continued to affect the lack of social housing in Germany.

The cost of building a house in Germany

The GdW has complained that the cost of building cheap apartments is rising continuously, due to the rising cost of building materials and stricter building regulations. According to the president of the GdW, Axel Gedashko, the average cost of building a new apartment had risen from 204.000 to 284.000 euros between 2010 and 2020. Gedashko referred to this 80.000 euro rise in cost as a “fatal development.”

Accordingly, in 2020, there are only 705.000 social housing units in Germany, 1,2 million less than in 2002. In the past year, 306.000 apartments were constructed across the country. However, only 30.000 social housing units were completed, a far cry from the 80.000-a-year requirement.