The State Office for Statistics Berlin-Brandenburg published the new permits for residential and non-residential buildings on Tuesday. In total, a little more than 1,800 permits were issued in the first half of 2021. Exactly 9148 apartments can now be built. Compared to the first half of 2020, that is a decrease of 28.5 percent, according to the announcement on the website of the office. In Brandenburg, the number of permits grew by 19 percent.
The number of approved apartments in new buildings in Berlin fell by 28.8 percent to 8,255 in the same period. In contrast, the number of planned one- and two-family houses is increasing, 770 have been approved, an increase of 24.2 percent.
According to the words of the office, it should be emphasized that there has been a “considerable decrease” of 31.5 percent in approved apartments in apartment buildings, in absolute numbers there are 7,403 apartments. In the first half of the previous year it was 10,809. Most of the building permits for apartments were reported by the districts of Spandau (2464; 1st half of 2020: 1033) and Treptow-Köpenick (1681; 2020: 2606).
The BBU Association of Berlin-Brandenburg Housing Companies called the numbers a “wake-up call”. Half-yearly figures offer only an imprecise outlook for the whole year, said chairwoman Maren Kern. But they show “the still inadequate staffing and technical equipment of the building authorities, but above all the increasingly poor new building climate in the city”. She also sees the long-term consequences of the failed rent cap in the statistics. What was not planned in 2020 cannot be approved in 2021.