Federal Building Minister Verena Hubertz (SPD) has presented a 13-point action plan aimed at driving down construction costs across Germany. Announced on Friday, the measures include the introduction of a mandatory digital building permit by 2028 and a new bonus system tied to shorter construction timelines.
Several elements of the plan had been signalled in earlier announcements, among them accelerated planning processes and the so-called Gebäudetyp E, a simplified building standard designed to make construction cheaper and easier.
"The creation of sufficient affordable housing is one of the most important tasks in our country," Hubertz said at an investor conference in Frankfurt am Main. "If we really want to drive housing construction forward, we must free ourselves from the burden of excessive building costs."
The minister identified digitisation as a central lever for reducing costs. Under the action plan, the digital building permit is to become the "binding standard route" by 2028, with paper applications permitted only in justified hardship cases. Land-use planning procedures using standardised data models are to be capped at a maximum of two years.
A new "platform for cost-reduced construction" run jointly by the federal and state governments is intended to make successful approaches better known and more accessible.
The many individual federal funding programmes are to be "bundled and modularly structured" from 2027, making them clearer and easier to access. On new-build funding, the action plan says Hubertz intends to "develop a bonus system for shorter construction times and reduced building costs through serial and modular construction." Further savings are expected from the use of secondary raw materials and reusable building components.
What Hubertz described as her "heart project" is a fund for affordable housing, in which private investors "seeking high security at moderate returns" would participate. She referred to it as a "housing construction module for the Deutschlandfonds." The fund, launched in December, is designed to leverage 30 billion euros in public funds and guarantees into 130 billion euros of total investment.
Hubertz also announced on Friday that a federal funding programme for climate-friendly new builds — the Effizienzhaus 55-Plus scheme requiring 100 percent renewable energy, will be extended. Originally launched in December 2025 and set to expire on 30 June, the programme will now run until available federal funds are exhausted, at the latest until the end of 2026.
"There is still money in the funding pot and we want it to reach where it is needed," Hubertz said. Approximately 343 million euros remains available, according to the ministry. So far the programme has supported around 33,700 housing units with a combined loan and grant volume of roughly 3.2 billion euros. Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil separately confirmed that he and Hubertz have jointly proposed the establishment of a state housing construction company.
The Central Association of the German Construction Industry described the action plan as a "right and overdue step," but called for "significantly more pace and ambition" in implementation. On the Gebäudetyp E in particular, it noted that no draft legislation has yet been produced.
Last year, only just under 207,000 housing units were built in Germany, the lowest figure since 2012. Speaking in May, Hubertz said she was looking ahead and pointed to rising numbers of building permits as a positive signal.
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