4.8% more housing construction permits in Germany in 2012
Across Germany, the year 2012 brought 239 500 new housing construction permits. That was 4.8% or 11 100 units more than in 2011. It also goes to show that the positive trend in housing construction permits that started in 2010 is continuing on, though the major growth shown in 2011 (+21.7% over 2010) was not matched. Of all the new housing units approved in 2012, 211 200 were in new apartment complexes (+5.5% over 2011). The increase in construction permits for dwellings in multi-family houses (+13.3%) was significantly sharper than the rise in approvals for duplex units (+3.6%). Contrarily, there were 5.8% less permits issued for single-family homes. Also in 2012, the total cubic content of approved new non-residential buildings declined by 2.1% vis-á-vis 2011, to 209.2 million m³. This was largely attributable to a 1.6% downturn in the number of permits for private builder-owners and to a 7.5% drop in those issued to the public sector.
