Suche
Mein Konto
Passau is fighting against the housing shortage: 1,300 apartments are urgently needed!
There is a shortage of 1,300 apartments in Passau. Housing construction is stagnating despite urgent need, experts are calling for action.
Passau is fighting against the housing shortage: 1,300 apartments are urgently needed!
There are currently serious challenges in the area of housing construction in Passau. According to research by the Pestel Institute, how Oldie wave reported, construction activities are severely restricted. There is currently a shortage of over 1,300 apartments in the city, and in order to counteract this housing shortage, around 360 new apartments would have to be built every year over the next five years.
Matthias Günther, chief economist at the Pestel Institute, is pessimistic about the feasibility of these targets. He calls for comprehensive federal policy measures to effectively stimulate housing construction. One of his proposals envisages an interest rate program for housing construction financing that should amount to a maximum of 2 percent interest. This initiative could help give a boost to the construction industry and build apartments on schedule.
High hurdles in construction
The criticism from building material retailers is loud and clear: Building has become complicated and expensive. Particularly in the context of increased construction prices and bureaucratic hurdles, the call for simpler construction processes is becoming louder. However, these difficult conditions are not just a local problem. The housing shortage is also felt across Germany.
As Statista notes, the housing shortage in Germany is getting worse, especially in the big cities. The traffic light coalition has set the goal of creating 400,000 new apartments every year. However, only around 216,000 new apartments were built in 2024 - a decrease of 14 percent compared to the previous year. This is the lowest figure for new residential buildings in 30 years.
Price pressure and construction stop
The reasons for these developments are diverse. Rising energy prices, inflation and supply bottlenecks for building materials are contributing to stagnation in housing construction. In 2024, sales in housing construction fell to around 51 billion euros, showing that the industry has been struggling with declines for years. While investments in residential construction rose to 281 billion euros in 2024, the sector is suffering from the sharp rise in new building prices.
The number of building permits in particular has fallen dramatically since the 1990s. Around 216,000 new homes were approved in 2023, a clear sign that the challenges in construction need to be addressed. The new federal government plans to create affordable housing and promote the construction of new rental and social housing. A planned “construction turbo” is also intended to shorten approval times and actively counteract the housing shortage.
The situation in Passau is therefore a reflection of an overall crisis in German housing construction. It remains to be hoped that both local and federal political measures will soon have an effect and the urgently needed housing can be built.