Housing stock grew by 7.5 per cent

The media is constantly reporting on a lack of housing. Over the last few years, the amount of housing units has risen significantly as a result of new construction and renovation.

As the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) recently reported, the number of apartments in Germany increased from around 41.2 million to around 41.7 million between 2000 and 2016. This represents an increase of 2.9 million apartments and 7.5 percent respectively. This resulted in 502 dwellings on 1,000 inhabitants at the end of 2016. In comparison, this figure was still 467 in 2000.

Stronger than the absolute number of the apartment is the available living space grown. In 2016 this amounted to 3.8 billion square meters, an increase of 17.2 percent compared to the year 2000. This also led to an increase in the average living space per apartment from 84.6 to 92.2 square meters. Statistically, at the end of 2016 every inhabitant had 46.3 square meters of living space at his disposal. In 2000, this area was still 39.5 square meters.