5.2% more housing permits issued in Germany

Germany’s Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) issued figures showing that it issued 212,600 home building permits over the first three quarters of this year, a rise of 5.2% or 10,400 units, although the rate of increase is nonetheless slowing down compared to the same period last year.

The rise in building permits was solely driven by multi-family home, up 9.8% higher year-on-year at the nine-month state, compared to a fall in permits for single-family homes of 3.2% and for semi-detached homes of 5.1%.

Non-residential real estate permits for new development fell by 7.4% to 141 cubic metres, driven by a fall in public sector demand of 22.6%. Private building permits also fell by 5.8%, after a 1.5% increase in 2H14. Most activity was registered for factory and workshop permits, which gained 5%, and hotels and restaurants (+2.6%). Institutional building permits, for municipal or public administrative purposes were the steepest fallers, by 32.5% on 3Q14, followed by agricultural ones at -23.9%.

Meanwhile, separate figures released by the Statistics Office showed that German construction orders in September fell by 2.4% compared to the same period last year. Before adjusting for price inflation, turnover at building companies employing more than 20 workers rose by 1.3% to €6.3bn, while the number of hours worked rose by 5.2%. According to the German Construction Industry Federation in Berlin, “The industry had expected better figures, particularly since companies have fairly full order books and they even had an extra day of work this year compared to last.”

After the first nine months of 2015, total turnover at €46.1bn is still up by 6.6% over the same period last year, largely because of a strong first six months. Given the weakening order book pipeline, however, the industry association warned of more difficult times ahead.