BERLIN, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- German population growth "increased pressure" on the housing market, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) revealed on Wednesday.
Driven by an excess of births over deaths as well as immigration to Germany, people living in German cities such as Leipzig, Frankfurt or Berlin had increased strongly, according to Destatis. Between 2012 and 2018, the number of people living in Germany has increased by 2.5 million.
In particular, people aged between 20 and 40 who decided to move to a city were increasing and led to a strong rise in demand for housing in or near large cities.
Young people in Germany were "attracted by metropolises", said Georg Thiel, president of Destatis. Between 2013 and 2018, around 1.2 million people had moved from the countryside to cities, Destatis stated.
As a result, the average space available for each person in seven largest cities in Germany has shrunk by 1.7 square meters to 39.2 square meters, Destatis noted.
Destatis said the shortage of housing would be a "phenomenon" specific to cities, as the average nationwide living floor space per person remained constant at just over 45 square meters between 2010 and 2018.
The tight housing market has been a frequent topic of political discussions in Germany over the past years. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced in June that her government would invest 5 billion euros (5.54 billion U.S. dollars) in social housing within this legislative period ending in 2021.
