In addition to many private developers, Bavaria’s public housing associations are also canceling new construction projects on a series basis. The Association of Bavarian Housing Companies (VDW) assumes that its 500 member companies will delete more than ten percent of their originally planned 4,263 new apartments next year. The association announced this on Tuesday in Nuremberg, whose members mainly include housing cooperatives and municipal companies.
In fact, these companies will probably only build 3,778 new apartments in the coming year. These figures are based on an internal survey conducted by the VDW among companies. Even greater savings will be made in modernizations, including energy-saving renovations. According to VDW, companies are canceling more than one in five planned apartment modernizations; 2,728 of the planned projects would be carried out in 2012. 716 energy modernizations have also been canceled.
Association director Hans Maier currently sees “historically poor conditions” for housing construction: “Due to the high costs, companies no longer see a way to implement their projects economically.” This refers to the fact that both the actual construction costs and the financing costs have increased significantly due to the increase in interest rates.
Housing construction is already declining this year, and the number of building permits has also collapsed nationwide. In this respect, Maier and other experts from the construction and real estate industry do not yet see an end to the negative trend.