(Photo: © KI-generiert gem. Adobe Firefly-Lizenz)
March 2026
If there are fewer new buildings, fewer new lifts are required. This is why the question occupying all of the players in the lift sector is: what’s next for the construction industry in Germany?
The Chief Executive Officer of the German Construction Industry Association, Tim-Oliver Müller, provided an answer to this in an exclusive interview with the LIFTjournal.
Mr Müller, how would you sum up the situation of the construction industry in 2025?
Müller: The government was unable to reach the target figure for the number of completed flats in 2025 - 225,000. Last year was not a good one for the economic health the sector either – in housebuilding we ended up with a turnover deficit of three percent. Our internal sector survey also produced similarly modest results, with only 27 percent of the companies surveyed describing their order volume as good. I would say there’s room for improvement but we’re more optimistic about 2026.
Will things bottom out at last for the building industry this year?
Müller: Yes, I can see light at the end of the tunnel. The fact that the Federal Construction Minister is continuing the KfW support programs with slight increases and improved interest rates ought to help stabilise new housebuilding in 2026. The one-off promotion of the ‘Efficiency House 55 standard’ worth a total of 800 million euros could also help here, even if the take-up rates are still very restrained, so this can only be a start in relieving the desperate situation in the housing market. Apart from reliable state support, the conditions driving costs will have to be further reduced. The initial pointers for the E-building type and the announced amendment of the Federal Building Code are steps in the right direction.
How does the German construction industry compare to building activity in Europe?
Müller: Housebuilding also continued to decline in other European markets last year. But there are also countries that performed better compared to Germany. Whereas we’ve been struggling with falling completion rates in Germany since 2020, the completion rate in house building has been much higher in Ireland, Poland and Switzerland.
Since conditions like consumer price inflation, mortgage interest rates and construction costs have slightly improved, the building trade ought to develop somewhat more positively again in many European countries - especially from 2027. One can expect that new construction will once again pick up in speed in the coming years in both the German as well as the European markets. All the same, the slightly positive development will have to be seen against the background of the heavy losses in the preceding years. Underground construction will probably also enjoy very positive development in view of the planned expansion and renovation of the European transport and energy infrastructure.
What are other countries in Europe doing better?
Müller: The picture varies when one looks at other countries in Europe. One can make the general observation that productivity in the building sector is higher in several European countries, such as the Netherlands, Denmark or Belgium. This is chiefly attributable to the general framework. Building and planning are more frequently conceived together, efficient contractual models with fewer small units are employed and very good use is made of digitalisation. Construction is not as heavily regulated - targets instead of standards are prescribed.
For example, the introduction in Ireland of so-called “planning consultants” has reduced the interface problems between planning, construction and administration and as vdecisive factor in the success of integrated planning is not that architects lose their independence but that planning and construction are seen as communication channels, which means that modifications of the plans are also possible as soon as implementation problems are identified.
What adjustments need to be made in Germany for stronger growth in construction activity? Has the “Construction Turbo” taken effect yet?
Müller: The Federal Government passed a bold piece of legislation in the form of the ‘Construction Turbo’ to give cities and municipalities more flexibility in issuing building permits. Relaxations for post-compaction and adding storeys are just as important as a maximum approval duration of three months. Hence, it's more of a planning than construction turbo.
But it also has to function: for this, the municipalities need the necessary political backing to make fast decisions locally and also exploit the newly opened up room for manoeuvre. This is why the announcement of Construction Minister Verena Hubertz that she would counter these uncertainties with targeted decisions and dialogue formats is correct. At the moment, we can see great differences among municipalities in the preparation and application of the construction turbo.
But it’s also clear that the construction turbo cannot on its own be the solution for more housebuilding in Germany. After all, faster approval procedures change nothing about high building costs or exaggerated, legally enshrined requirements for residential buildings. Consequently, doing everything possible to ensure that we can once again build more easily than before remains important.
How can the planned E-type building contribute to making housebuilding faster?
Müller: Making construction affordable and simpler once again is essential. This would not only increase completion rates in housebuilding but also make rents cheaper once again due to a greater supply. With the right political realisation, the E-type building could be an important turn in the road towards making building once again simpler and more affordable. But the bill is being delayed while important questions remain open – such as the technical features of a “simpler standard” beyond “established technological practice” or options for standardisation as in the “Hamburg Standard”. Consequently, legally certain implementation of construction projects before 2030 is scarcely realistic.
How will improved and longer-termed funding of the support programmes of the state development bank KfW affect construction activity?
Müller: Housebuilding requires reliability, trust and above all but not solely an adequate and simplified support framework just to get the motor running again. But this cannot be everything. In the long term, construction costs have to fall. This will occur through the dismantling of excessive regulations and no longer seasonable conditions, the process optimisation of approvals and planning and lower costs due to industrial construction methods.
To what extent is serial construction suitable for faster implementation of construction projects or providing new construction with fresh impetus?
Müller: Serial construction could make an important contribution to accelerating processes in housebuilding and making them more efficient: faster procedures, lower costs and greater standardisation. This is precisely where serial construction comes in.
A package of fast approvals, reduced requirements, industrial construction and more state support could in fact become a decisive game-changer for more affordable residential accommodation.
What is the “Accommodation Package” passed by the EU Commission in mid-December about and how will it affect building construction in Germany?
Müller: We expect a slightly positive effect from the European “Accommodation Package”. Among other things, through the modification of the subsidy regulations,, which will further simplify government investments via subsidised housing. Increasing the EU fund for housebuilding and simplification of the EU regulations will improve the overall conditions for construction. But it also has to be clear that the EU can only make minor adjustments. Consequently, it continues to be essential that reforms are tackled in Germany at the federal, state and municipal level.
Bernd Lorenz asked the questions.
The Construction Industry: The German Construction Industry Association (HDB) is a union of ten state associations and eight trade associations, which are extraordinary members. As the leading organisation of the construction industry, the HDB represents the interests in th e construction industry of large companies and SMEs, frequently owned by families, vis-a-vis politics, administration and society in Germany and Europe. Tim-Oliver Müller is the Chief Executive Officer of the HDB. The President is Peter Hübner.
bauindustrie.de
Glossary: Bau-Turbo: The “Act to accelerate housebuilding and secure residential accommodation” – Construction Turbo for short – is intended to make implementing construction projects in future much simpler and faster, according to the Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building. It is a time-limited special regulation (Section 246e Federal Building Code) intended to permit municipalities under particular circumstances to diverge from the customary regulations of construction planning law without the time-consuming establishment or amendment of a development plan.
EH 55 Standard: The abbreviation “EH 55” refers to the Efficiency House 55. These are buildings that consume 55 percent less energy than a reference building. To promote stagnating housebuilding, the German Federal Government reactivated the EH 55 support in mid-December and provided 800 million euros, according to the Central Association for Sanitation, Heating and Air Conditioning. To obtain the support and meet the technical standards of the EH 55 grants, only energy equipment such as heat pumps, district heating, solar panels or biomass may be used.
E-type building: The “E” stands for simple and experimental construction. Consequently, a building type with specified construction characteristics is not meant, according to Federal Ministry of Justice. The aim is to make diverging from legally non-mandatory standards, such as purely comfort and equipment standards, simpler for the parties to construction projects. To this end, building contract law is to be amended.
Serial building: This refers to the prefabrication of construction components or building parts in large numbers and their assembly on site. Construction parts (such as floors, walls, façade elements, stairs or balconies) are prefabricated according to a predefined standard, which makes it possible to use them in different construction projects, according to the Federal Ministry for the Economic Affairs and Energy.
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