The German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB) warns of the social and economic consequences of the housing crisis and calls for more investment.

“The housing crisis is poison for social cohesion and economic development,” said DGB board member Stefan Körzell to the Editorial Network Germany (RND). Seven million renter households are financially overburdened by high housing costs.

“The economy is increasingly suffering from the high rents, as employees are afraid to move and vacancies remain unfilled,” warned Körzell. “In this situation, the federal government is miles short of meeting its housing construction targets.” On Monday, representatives of the housing industry will meet in the Chancellery with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Construction Minister Klara Geywitz (both SPD) to talk about ways out of the housing shortage.

Körzell insisted on more investments. “Instead of helping the construction industry get back on its feet and thus keep existing construction capacity on the market, the traffic light presents a completely counterproductive austerity budget,” he criticized. It is clear that without major investments in housing construction, the government is counteracting the work of its own alliance for affordable housing.

“Since private developers are becoming more and more reluctant, the public sector must now finally invest massively so that housing construction does not come to a standstill and construction capacity is maintained,” said the trade unionist.