Federal Statistical Office
2009 recuperation: more housing starts approved
2009 was the first year since 2006 to show a gain in residential building permits over the previous year‘s number. As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), permits for 178 000 residential units were issued in Germany in 2009. That was 1.9% or 3 300 units more than in 2008. Prior to this positive result, the annual number of permits issued had been markedly depressed (– 26.2% in 2007 and – 4.4% in 2008) compared to the respective previous year.
Of the 178 000 units approved in 2009, 154 100 were in new residential buildings (+ 4.0% compared to 2008). The increase in the number of permits issued for units in apartment houses (+ 5.4%) significantly exceeded that registered for detached and semi-detached houses (+ 2.1% and + 1.6%, respectively).
Simultaneously, the cubic content of approved non-residential construction dropped by 22.5% below the 2008 figure, to 193.4 million m³. This was attributable to a 26.7% decline in building licenses issued to private builder-owners, to 169.3 million m³. In contrast, public builders increased their volume by 30.1%, to 24.1 million m³.
