The housing construction figures for 2021 are bitter: 293,393 apartments were built. For the first time since 2011, this is less than in the previous year. These are the reasons.

In 2020 it was finally done: over 300,000 new apartments a year. That’s how it should go on – and fast. With the new federal government, the ambition to accelerate housing construction grew, the new Minister of Construction Klara Geywitz has the goal of 400,000 apartments per year. The latest housing construction figures must have put quite a damper on the building ministry: in 2021 Germany will slip below the 300,000 mark again.

Now you cannot blame the new federal government for this, Geywitz was only in office for a good three weeks in 2021. But the reasons for the disappointing statistics have not disappeared since then – on the contrary: they have worsened.

What exactly do the housing construction figures say?