Trade union sounds alarm over Germany's growing housing crisis

BERLIN (AA) – Amid a burgeoning housing crisis in Germany, a trade union has warned there will be a shortfall of 700,000 affordable housing units by the end of the year.

As immigration increases, the social housing deficit in Germany will hit a new peak in 2022, according to Robert Feiger, chairman of the construction, agriculture and environment union IG BAU.

He urged the government to take urgent measures to meet its target of building 400,000 units per year.

Building more affordable houses will bring down rents, which will help the German economy, Feiger added.

Some 13 million people in Germany are at risk of poverty, including around 3.6 million elderly people, who have been gravely impacted by rising rents, according to research center Pestel Institute.

As energy prices and rents soar, spending on housing and heating accounts for more than 50% of expenses being incurred by households in major German cities, where half of the population lives on rent, the data showed.

* Writing by Gokhan Ergocun in Istanbul