BERLIN, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Germany's housing crisis shows no signs of easing, with building permits for dwellings dropping by 19 percent year-on-year in June, according to data released by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Friday.
In a country already grappling with severe strain on the housing market, particularly in major cities, only 17,600 new dwellings received building permits in June. This represents a 42.1 percent decrease compared to the same period in 2022.
The total number of new apartments approved in Germany in the first half (H1) of this year was just 106,700, marking a 21.1 percent decrease compared to the same period last year.
The sharpest decline was seen in single-family houses, with only 18,600 units approved in H1, a drop of nearly a third.
These results encompass building permits for apartments in both new residential and non-residential buildings, as well as for new apartments within existing structures.
The newly-released figures cast serious doubt on the German government's goal of building 400,000 new flats this year.
"The current level of building permits corresponds to only a little more than 200,000 newly built apartments per year," said Sebastian Dullien, scientific director of the Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK). "This indicates that the crisis in German housing construction is set to continue." ■
