Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

Regardless of the expected downturn in the construction industry, Federal Minister of Construction Klara Geywitz fundamentally maintains the goal of 400,000 new apartments per year.

I also keep reading and hearing that from Minister Geywitz in various media and am really curious. I would think it’s great if that could work out, but I myself have no idea how. But that’s what other ministers are for, and I’m just a "nobody". ;-) I almost always hope that others are smarter than I am and have no problem with that.

Maybe something like more multi-family houses, fewer single-family houses would be the "productivity gain". :eek: That would at least very likely mean more housing units per time and resources, without saying "yeah, the construction companies just have to work faster". Something else would of course be reducing bureaucracy and simplifying procedures to place fewer blockers in the way, but in times of "we want to become greener, therefore here are 10 more rules" I really don't see that. Otherwise, I don't really have any ideas on how to enable "productivity" from above, so I expect rather a bit vague babble. I'm curious.

Does it really bring that much efficiency gain? If we assume similar living areas per unit and comparable standards for single-family houses and multi-family houses, then I am skeptical. Flooring is laid by area, regardless of the building envelope. Plumbers and electricians are also quite independent of whether they work in a single-family house or a multi-family house. In shell construction, you need somewhat fewer exterior walls, but some interior walls are more complex because they separate living units. I see a few synergies in terms of price (bulk discounts, fixed costs are spread over more living units, one large heating system is cheaper than six small ones,...) but I don’t automatically see faster construction times. The bigger lever regarding construction times I see is rather to replace reinforced concrete construction with something faster.

According to information from various building material dealers in recent days, strong price increases from 01.01.2023 Brick wall stones and roof tiles increase in price by approximately 20%-25% Ready-mix concrete plus €30 per m3 Construction timber currently remains stable

With these price increases, in my opinion, the "war and shortage hog everywhere" is being driven through the village. The government is working on relief measures for energy, but companies are already announcing generous price increases. Do they want to (at least partially) fill their pockets here? Let's see how long consumers will put up with this! To me, this is sawi ng the branch you are sitting on.

Do you want to (at least partially) fill your pockets here?

Always, as long as there is no overproduction caused by competition. This is inherent to every economically active company. But construction is simply particularly energy-intensive. With the current gas problem, it is understandable that products that require a lot of gas become more expensive.