German home building permits rise in January for second month in row

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Building permits for apartments in Germany rose 6.9% in January from a year earlier, statistics office data showed on Tuesday, a second consecutive month of increases after three years of declines.

Around 18,000 permits were issued, which is 1,200 more than year earlier, the data showed.

But the increase is meagre after permits in 2024 fell nearly 17% to their lowest level since 2010.

Germany’s property sector, which began to shrink in 2022, is undergoing its most severe slump in decades. Permits are an important indicator of future construction activity.

(Reporting by Tom Sims, Editing by Friederike Heine, Kirsti Knolle)

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