Overview
- The Pestel-Institut’s Sozialer Wohn‑Monitor 2026 reports a nationwide deficit of about 1.4 million apartments as of end‑2024, driven largely by a lack of low-cost and social housing.
- Researchers say closing the gap by 2030 would require roughly 400,000 new homes per year, yet approvals and activity point to only about 200,000 annually in the coming years.
- Shortages are heaviest in populous western regions, including roughly 376,000 missing homes in North Rhine-Westphalia, 233,000 in Bavaria, 196,000 in Baden-Württemberg, and about 56,000 in Berlin.
- Younger people, retirees and people with disabilities face the toughest access, with students spending on average 53% of their monthly budget on housing and about half of renter households eligible for a social-housing permit.
- Advocacy groups call to double the social-housing stock from about one million to at least two million and fault staggered federal payouts and expiring rent-price bindings for slowing new supply, while large vacancy pools in low-demand areas offer little relief to urban shortages.