Overview
- The Pestel-Institut expects only about 200,000 new apartments a year in the near term, roughly half the estimated need of around 400,000, putting total demand at up to 2.4 million additional homes by 2030.
- North Rhine-Westphalia faces the largest shortfall with about 376,000 missing units, followed by Bavaria with roughly 233,000.
- Young people—especially trainees, students and job starters—are increasingly unable to secure housing, and many retirees can no longer afford their city apartments.
- Economists say re-letting a seven-figure number of vacant homes would not fix shortages in critical western regions.
- The analysis warns the housing gap has become an economic drag that could hinder growth and the attraction of needed labor through migration.