欧美文化:Germany's residential building completions set for "dramatic slump": ZIA

BERLIN, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- The housing crisis in Germany shows no sign of easing as residential building completions were set for a "dramatic slump," the country's property federation (ZIA) warned on Tuesday.

With the rise in interest rates in the second quarter of 2022, all residential construction projects "almost suddenly became uneconomical," leading to a "virtual halt in residential construction," said Harald Simons, one of the authors of the report released by ZIA.

As a result, Germany's housing shortage could climb to 600,000 units this year and in the next three years, the gap between demand and supply could reach 830,000, according to the report.

Although demand has "slowed considerably," the crisis is even "deeper than the figures on building completions and building permits show so far," said Simons.

"The experts' analysis is not just a wake-up call, but in some respects a real warning siren," said ZIA president Andreas Mattner.

The German government is well aware of the lack of housing. A total of 45 billion euros (48 billion U.S. dollars) are to be invested in publicly subsidized housing construction by 2027, 18 billion euros of which will be exclusively for social housing.