Construction of 19,500 homes was approved in Germany in January 2026. According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), this was an increase of 8.4 per cent or 1,500 planning permissions compared with January 2025. The number of homes approved in new buildings rose by 7.4 per cent or 1,100 to 16,400. The number of homes approved through the conversion of existing buildings increased by 13.5 per cent or 400 year on year in January 2026, to 3,100.
Upward trend for detached houses and blocks of flats continues
A total of 16,000 homes were approved in new residential buildings in January 2026, 6.0 per cent or 900 more new homes than in the same period of the previous year. Planning permissions for detached houses increased by 12.6 per cent (+400) to 3,800. The number of homes approved in semi-detached houses rose by 26.1 per cent (+300) to 1,200. In blocks of flats, the building type accounting for the largest number, the building supervisory authorities approved 10,500 new homes. This was an increase of 7.1 per cent (+700) compared with the same period of the previous year. The number of homes approved in residential halls fell by 47.6 per cent (-450) compared with January 2025, to 500.
A total of 350 homes (+148.6%; +200) were approved in new non-residential buildings in January 2026. These include, for example, caretaker flats in school buildings or homes above commercial premises in city centres.
A total of 3,100 homes were approved as conversion measures in existing residential and non-residential buildings in January 2026, 13.5 per cent or 400 homes more than in the same period of 2025.
ZIA: housing construction on amber – no turnaround
Despite this positive development, the German Property Federation (ZIA) warns against excessive expectations: “It is much too early for euphoria. Rising approval figures alone are not enough to bring genuine relief to the housing market; what matters most is an increase in completions,” says ZIA Chief Executive Aygül Özkan. With construction costs still high – they rose by around 60 per cent between 2015 and the end of 2023 – the following measures would be needed to stimulate housing construction sustainably:
- Make construction easier and thereby reduce building costs, in particular through a new basic housing standard.
- Reduce the government share of approximately 37 per cent, for example by waiving property transfer tax on the purchase of a first home.
- Introduce measures that substitute for equity, such as government guarantees. The planned Germany Fund is the right approach here. The crucial point is that it must also be opened up consistently to housing construction.
“Only when we resolutely use these structural mechanisms will rising approval figures actually produce new homes,” Özkan continues. “Further debates about tightening tenancy law or even socialisation, by contrast, are counterproductive in this situation. They unsettle investors and hold back precisely the private funds that we urgently need for housing construction,” Özkan adds.