News & insights

She is Executive Director of the GdW, the organisation that represents the housing companies that provide homes for around 13 million people across Germany. She frames the housing crisis not as a policy failure but as a structural collapse of the construction model itself. We agree.

All3 Germany Managing Director Wulf von Borzyskowski spoke with Esser about what a new model of housing provision looks like, and what it will take to get there. The picture she sets out is stark: 60% of approved permits never break ground, construction costs are up 40% since 2020, and Europe is short 2.5 million construction workers, with the shortfall accelerating.

The conversation covers the shrinking stock of social housing, the case for simpler building standards in place of over-regulated codes, and why other countries have moved so far ahead of Germany on industrialised construction. They also discuss the decision to tie the demanding EH40 energy standard to public funding - which Esser sees as a wrong turn that has stalled delivery rather than accelerated it. Policy that raises the bar without asking whether the industry can still afford to build.

Ingeborg Esser is Executive Director and board member of the GdW, the Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies. A qualified auditor and tax adviser, she works at the intersection of housing policy and practice, and also serves as chair of NaWoh and on the board of DigiWoh, advancing sustainable and digital construction.