“Affordable housing can only be created through lower standards”
The order intake in the construction industry fell by almost 19 percent at the beginning of the year
Quelle: Getty Images/Anton Petrus
The numbers in the construction industry are worse than they have been for a long time. Housing construction is particularly badly affected. In order to defy the crisis, the industry is now calling for a rethink – one can also learn from our European neighbors.
Peter Hübner is on the 33rd floor of the shell of the Edge East Side Tower in Berlin-Friedrichshain. Cement sacks and other building materials are piled up next to Hübner, President of the Main Association of the German Construction Industry. Through the picture windows of the skyscraper, into the Amazon is to move in as the main tenant, Hübner has a clear view of the Warsaw Bridge and the television tower. “Building is always fascinating,” says Hübner. But at the same time it has not been as difficult to construct buildings or infrastructure for years as it is at the moment.
Every year, the main association of the German construction industry invites you to a press conference in the run-up to the day of the construction industry. But the figures presented there have not been as bad as this year for a long time.
All areas of the construction industry are in decline. It’s particularly bad for him housing. In order for the decline in this area to come to a halt, Hübner is now calling for building standards to be lowered.
Before Hübner drove up the shell of the Edge East Side Tower in an elevator, he presented the association’s current figures in an adjacent construction container. “Currently, no area is progressing as we would like. There are problems with the construction of apartments, the expansion of power lines and the renewal of infrastructure,” said Hübner.
After the Incoming orders in the construction industry According to figures from the German Construction Industry Association, it fell by almost 19 percent in the first quarter of 2023. As a result, sales in the industry are also falling. Overall, the main association of the German construction industry expects a real decline in sales in the main construction trade of six percent for the current year.
Peter Hübner, President of the German construction industry
Those: pa/dpa/Kay Nietfeld
Residential construction is particularly affected by the decline in sales. According to the forecast by the main association of the German construction industry, sales in this sector will fall by nine percent over the course of the year. “However, I don’t think we’ll get away with it,” said Hübner, preparing for an even greater slump.
How strong that housing affected by the construction crisis is also reflected in the order backlog. While this showed a real minus of eleven percent for the construction industry at the end of March 2023 compared to the corresponding point in time in the previous year, the decline in residential construction was 21 percent. Hübner emphasized that the increase in new building subsidies was not enough to absorb the rise in construction prices and higher interest rates.
“Affordable housing can only be created through lower standards,” said Hübner. It wasn’t about him, the standards for statics or fire protection to question. “It’s not about building cheaply, it’s about avoiding overly high standards. A social discussion about this must begin,” says Hübner.
For example, the association president would observe that partitions in other EU countries were not built as thick as in Germany. “Such savings must also be possible for us,” said Hübner.
Hübner also criticizes barrier-free housing. “At the moment we are trying to make all apartments accessible to everyone,” says Hübner. A concentration of barrier-free construction on certain objects would, however, reduce the costs in residential construction.
Hübner also calls for a move away from efficiency house level 40 (EH 40). He is critical of the cost-benefit ratio of renovations that go beyond the EH 55 standard. “In addition, one should not only consider the building shell, but also focus on the heat and energy supply of the house,” says Hübner.
When viewing the Edge East Side Tower, the problems that Hübner talked about in the construction container become apparent. Cement sacks and binding agents such as lime, which are found on many corners of the construction site, have remained at the same high price level since the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
Hübner can report at least one piece of good news: the prices for structural steel have fallen back to pre-war levels.
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