Overview
- The Building Ministry is reviewing the SPD idea of a state-run developer and is scoping timelines and legal paths, including whether a constitutional change would be required.
- Housing Minister Verena Hubertz backs the concept as a long-term "game-changer" to ease a shortfall of about 1.4 million homes and to let the federal government build at scale.
- Left and Green lawmakers welcome federal building, while the CDU argues for lower costs through a simpler "Building Type E" code and stronger tax support for first-time buyers.
- The federal property agency BIMA already manages about 37,000 apartments yet completed only 276 new units in 2025, spurring debate over reforming BIMA to rent more broadly or creating a new company.
- Economists and industry groups warn a federal builder would face the same high costs, labor shortages and rules that have slowed private projects, with completions down to 251,937 in 2024 and many new builds only viable at rents near 18 to 20 euros per square meter.