16,500 new flats built this year

Around 16,500 new flats are expected to be completed in Berlin this year.

This is around four per cent more than the year before, as the Senate Administration announced on Wednesday evening after a meeting of the Alliance for Housing and Affordable Housing. "The demand is an average of 20,000 flats that we need per year," said Berlin's Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) after the meeting. The Senate remains committed to this goal, she emphasised.

"The downward slide is definitely over"

The number of newly built flats achieved this year is nevertheless a success in view of the current crises with rising interest rates and high construction prices, she said. "At times, one honestly had to fear that the number we achieve would be well below that," Giffey said. "The slump is definitely over," added Building Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD). "How it continues next year has to be displayed, there is definitely work behind it."

5000 new social housing units needed per year

The lack of social housing is considered particularly problematic. 5,000 of them would have to be added every year just to maintain the current stock. This was the goal set by the housing alliance of private and state-owned housing companies and the Senate when it was constituted in the summer. But according to Geisel, only 4,000 social housing units were approved for funding this year.

Numerous subsequent subsidies due to increased construction costs

He said that more than half of these were projects that had already been subsidised last year, but then became loss-making due to increased construction costs and are now being subsidised. The number of social housing units actually completed this year is even well below that.

Senate commission to accelerate housing construction

In order to accelerate housing construction, the Senate is relying not only on the Alliance for Housing and Affordable Housing but also on a Senate Commission on Housing that was set up in April. It is supposed to mediate in larger, stuck housing projects and accelerate their completion. Planning has been accelerated in this way for 18,800 projects this year, it said.