German housebuilding soars to record levels

German house-building permits have soared to a record this year as investors put their money into bricks and mortar as a hedge against inflation and the EU’s sovereign debt crisis.

The number of permits leapt up 22% in the first nine of 2011 says the latest data from the German Federal Statistics Office.

“It's fear of inflation,” Heiko Stiepelmann, deputy chief executive officer for Germany's Construction Industry Association, said this week. “The strong rise is explained by a lack of profitable, and especially safe, alternatives for investing.”

A massive 27% surge in German building permits for “multi-family houses” in the first three quarters of 2011 is the highest rate since the data became available in 1997.

Source: OPP.org.uk