BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - From the industry's point of view, apartment hunters are likely to have a hard time in many places for years to come. The German government is doing too little to achieve its housing construction target, criticized the president of the landlords' association GdW, Axel Gedaschko, in the "Bild am Sonntag" newspaper. "It is not possible to simply build 400,000 new homes per year from a standing start. The housing shortage will therefore continue for at least another ten years."

The Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies (GdW) primarily represents cooperatives and municipal housing companies, but also listed industry giants such as Vonovia. Gedaschko demanded that the federal and state governments provide buildable land as well as grants and low-interest loans for construction.

Harald Schaum, vice chairman of the Industriegewerkschaft Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt, told the newspaper, "Housing is becoming a poverty risk." 11 percent of households in Germany spend more than 40 percent of their income on housing, he said. "The distribution of scarce housing will lead to further displacement of poor people from cities and threatens to become a social explosive."/bf/DP/jha