German residential building permits continue nosedive in July

The number of residential building permits in Germany remained well below target in July, with only 17,000 new homes authorized.

That is 19.2% fewer than in the same month a year ago, the Federal Statistical Office said on Wednesday.

This means the decrease was slightly greater than in June, when authorizations fell 19% year-on-year.

In the first seven months of this year, the number of permits for 123,600 new homes was 20.8% below the same period last year.

The federal government aims to have 400,000 new homes authorized per year.

The decline remained strongest for single-family houses: from January to July, there were 22,100 building permits, 28.4% fewer than in the first seven months of last year.

High construction costs and expensive financing are blamed for choking the supply of new housing.