Number for the month of July: 293,393

The German government missed its target of building 400,000 new apartments in 2021. This is according to a press release from the Federal Statistical Office dated May 23, 2022. Meanwhile, housing shortages are widespread. There is a particular lack of affordable housing and social housing throughout Germany.

In addition to this fact, the increase in living space per capita exacerbates the situation. statistical publication on living space shows that the total actually used living space has increased by 6.5 percent within nine years. The reason: apartments have become larger. In 2020, the average apartment size was 92 square meters. The living space per inhabitant also increased by 2.8 percent. This is due to changing household sizes. More and more people live alone. But the number of two-person households has also increased since 1950.

It is interesting to note in this context that in the 1950s, the average living space per person was just 15 square meters. By 2020, this per capita living space had risen to 47.4 percent. The living space occupied by each person has thus tripled.

The reason for this is the increasingly later age at which people start families. On average, 68 square meters are allocated to single-person households, and 33 square meters per resident to households with more than two people. Seniors who don't move out of their large three- or four-room apartments due to high rents also contribute to the increase in per capita living space. New, unsubsidized apartments are more expensive than affordable social housing and existing properties. Furthermore, supply bottlenecks, staff shortages, and raw material scarcity led to a decline in construction completions in 2021, even though the number of building permits (380,736) increased by 3.3% compared to 2020.

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