German builders are on the brink of collapse

“We are sendingGDP our construction industry into the abyss,” warns Rolf Buch, boss of Vonovia, Germany’s biggest landlord. The crisis afflicting German builders is far from the country’s only economic problem. But it is particularly acute, and concerns a sector that makes up 12% of and employs 1m construction workers. That makes it important for the health of the German economy and of its society.The government promised to build 400,000 flats a year when it came to power in 2021. Industry groups reckon that something more like 700,000 a year are needed, not least to house the more than 1m Ukrainians who have fled their war-torn country. Whatever the true figure, everyone agrees that the 295,000 built last year did not cut it. Mr Buch calls the resulting shortage of affordable flats in parts of the country a “societal tinderbox”.