Schwerin (dpa/mv) - The construction industry in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania grew strongly in the first half of the year, but in view of the high energy and material prices and rising interest rates, it must expect a drop in demand. As the state building association announced on Tuesday, the industry recorded sales of 845 million euros in the first six months of this year. According to the association, that was 20.5 percent more than in the same period last year.
According to the association, all divisions contributed to the growth to an almost equal extent. Public construction increased by 22.3 percent, residential construction, which has meanwhile faltered, by 21.4 percent and commercial construction by 18.2 percent.
The increase in sales is largely due to higher construction prices. As the association's managing director Jörg Schnell said, the explosion in costs for building materials, energy and fuel is also causing enormous problems for the construction industry. "In addition, the procurement of building materials of all kinds is becoming more difficult and more expensive. This means that the time processes for the customer are getting longer and the construction prices are rising overall."
In addition to the increased construction costs, rising interest rates for construction loans are also likely to have led to a weakening of demand over the course of the year. Incoming orders in the first half of the year amounted to 776 million euros, almost 11 percent more than in the same period of the previous year. But the increase in May was almost 16 percent. According to Schnell, there are clear signals that orders are falling.
Residential construction recorded a 14.5 percent drop in incoming orders in the first half of the year. In June alone, demand fell by almost 38 percent compared to the same month last year. "How the federal government intends to meet the target of 400,000 apartments per year is anyone's guess," the building association said in a statement. The trend in incoming orders was also downward in public construction, while commercial construction was largely unimpressed and grew strongly with a plus of almost 26 percent.
