The Central Association of the German Construction Industry and the Federation of the German Construction Industry (HDB) announced in Berlin on Wednesday that they expect around 300,000 new units to have been built across the country this year.

That would be around 13,000 more flats than in the previous year, but the German government’s target of bringing around 375,000 new apartments onto the market annually by 2021 would once again be missed. In 2020, the HDB expects 310,000 new units to be built.

The associations currently expect residential construction to grow by 7 per cent in 2019 and say the reasons for this are rising incomes, the stable labour market and a continuing influx of people into Germany’s big cities.

The year 2019 marks the ninth year in a row in which the industry’s total turnover has risen significantly. However, the pace of growth is gradually slowing down.

The associations expect sales to increase by 8.5 per cent to 137.2 billion euros (152.7 billion dollars) in the current year. For 2020, 145 billion euros is expected, a rise of around 5.5 per cent. In 2018, sales in the industry rose by 11 per cent.