The construction crisis, and the associated housing crisis in Germany, is one of the issues that has been virtually ignored during the election campaign. Yet it is precisely here that the coalition government has made itself vulnerable because it has failed to fulfil key promises in recent years. The aim was to build 400,000 new apartments annually. This year it will probably only be 230,000. And legislative plans that could make building easier and cheaper have also not been implemented.

According to calculations by the German Economic Institute (IW), only 79% of new apartments were completed between 2021 and 2023 in relation to actual demand. In the major cities in particular, demand coverage for the years of the legislative period now coming to an end is dramatically poor: Berlin 52%, Hamburg 62%, Cologne 37%, Frankfurt/Main 61%, Stuttgart 43%. The exception is Munich, with 93% of completed versus demand.

There are certainly some political similarities in the party programmes that could give the real estate industry new impetus. The German Property Federation (ZIA) has submitted questions on various election touchstones to five parties – CDU/CSU, FDP, SPD, Greens and Volt.

The answers show that all parties are in favour of facilitating planning laws, so that changes in the use of properties can be made quickly and at a low financial cost. All are also in favour of incentives to channel more private capital into energy-efficient refurbishment. And when it comes to the particularly critical point for the sector, the high state share of price-forming costs in the construction and sale of new-build flats (currently 37%), only the Greens still have reservations about further tax incentives.

The FDP is the only party to reject the idea of retaining the Building Energy Act (GEG) in principle after the election. The CDU/CSU, which wants to abolish the controversial Heating Act, is also in favour of the GEG in principle.

The biggest contradictions in the party programmes probably concern the issue of tenant protection. The CDU/CSU and Liberals reject a possible further tightening of tenancy law, while the SPD and Greens are in favour of it. Volt is undecided on this issue. However, CDU/CSU chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz also seems willing to talk on the subject of rent caps.

So what will happen after the general election? The completed, but not yet adopted, amendment to the building law is already on the table, as is a simplification of building regulations (keyphrase: „building type E“). The future federal government could also quickly take these up again. However, it would first have to agree on whether the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Construction should remain an independent ministry, or whether the structure of the ministry should be changed. The CDU/CSU, the most likely winner of the elections, has so far left this open.

The housing crisis does not appear in the CDU/CSU's immediate action programme. The banks are warning against putting the problem on the back burner. „The creation of more living space in Germany is fundamental to social cohesion and must therefore be tackled swiftly,“ emphasises Marija Kolak, President of the National Association of German Cooperative Banks (BVR).

The BVR has proposed an ambitious package of measures, which will focus in particular on promoting home ownership. Kolak points out that Germany ranks second to last in Europe in terms of home ownership. „More home ownership is an effective lever for more living space", she says.

The proposals in the position paper include adjusting the income limits for the housing construction premium and the employee savings allowance, as well as simplified building regulations, harmonisation of state building regulations and better digitalisation of planning and approval processes. There should also be a reduction in real estate transfer tax, for example through a lower tax rate for owner-occupation or further tax relief for young families.

According to the BVR, the KfW subsidy programmes for the acquisition of residential property and energy-efficient refurbishment must be made more attractive and practical. The German Property Federation (ZIA) is calling for equity-replacing funds and guarantees to be made available via KfW. This should reactivate stalled new construction and refurbishment projects.

At the same time, the industry association is focusing on standardised, simplified building regulations and the provision of more building land. Even if the German government is not in the lead here, ZIA believes that the right political course could turn the property sector back into „an economic locomotive“ as early as the current year, following the general election. After all, we are talking about a sector that generates almost 20% of Germany's gross domestic product.