One of Federal Construction Minister Verena Hubertz's most important projects came into force a year ago. What is the balance so far? The Handelsblatt went looking for clues.
The construction turbo allows municipalities to deviate from planning regulations for housing construction projects if they do not object within three months.
In Berlin, the Senate Administration has registered more than 80 preliminary consultations, 50 application processes and 31 approvals in four districts since the construction turbo came into force.
In the model municipality of Rüdersdorf, however, few private building applications for the Bau-Turbo have been received so far; the process is still little known there.
In Koblenz, the construction turbo is causing more administrative work and more frequent building committee meetings because investor inquiries have increased, but often only projects with economic prospects are actually implemented.
Berlin. The lack of living space increases the pressure to create new and affordable housing more quickly. The black-red federal government therefore promised in the coalition agreement to present a “draft law to introduce a housing construction turbo”.
In July 2025, Federal Construction Minister Verena Hubertz (SPD) presented the draft law, and the regulations came into force on October 30th.
The Bau-Turbo allows municipalities to deviate from planning regulations for housing construction projects without drawing up or changing a development plan. New construction, conversion or conversion of existing buildings are then possible more easily. Municipal approval is deemed to have been given if the municipality does not refuse it within three months.
But did the construction turbo really “fire” as Hubertz promised? Time to ask the municipalities after a year.
Smallest municipality in Germany in terms of area
The smallest municipality in Germany in terms of area is Martinstein in Rhineland-Palatinate, directly on the left bank of the Nahe. Almost 300 people live on 39 hectares. The construction turbo has not yet fired up here.
“In fact, we haven't had any inquiries for Martinstein yet,” reports the head of the construction department of the responsible municipality of Nahe-Glan, Michelle Weikert, to the Handelsblatt. This is probably because the construction turbo is particularly interesting for the so-called “outdoor area”. This refers to properties that lie beyond the development plans on the outskirts or outside the villages: such as arable land and meadows, old farms or barns in open fields.
According to Weikert, around 20 preliminary inquiries have been received so far for the association community, which includes a total of 34 local communities. Some applications for which the municipality has given its approval are now submitted to the Bad Kreuznach district administration for approval. Nothing has been decided yet.
In a specific case, a family wanted to build another residential building next to their single-family home. “The construction turbo process is quicker than if a development plan had been necessary,” explains the department head.
She and her three employees who are responsible for the construction turbo draw a cautiously positive conclusion. “At least it doesn’t create more work for us,” said Weikert.
Largest municipality in Germany in terms of area
The largest German city, with 3.7 million inhabitants and an area of 891 square kilometers, reacted quickly: the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing published guidelines on the day the construction turbo came into force on October 30, 2025. “Especially in cities with a tight housing market like Berlin, the construction turbo creates new opportunities to quickly create building rights for housing projects and realize them,” it said.
Since then, a number of projects have been launched. The Senate administration mentions “more than 80 preliminary consultations, 50 application processes and 31 approvals” in the four districts of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Mitte, Neukölln and Marzahn-Hellersdorf alone.
In Pankow, the real estate company Argo Properties is trying to accelerate a project with around 300 residential units. But the instrument is also considered helpful by investors for larger projects. Simon Kempf, managing director of the building land developer Periskop Development, says that individual parts of the property or building site could be removed from an ongoing development plan process and brought forward using the construction turbo. “We’re currently trying to do that with two projects in the Berlin area.”
However, this is “not a free pass,” Kempf continued. The construction turbo replaces neither the necessary political will for more housing construction nor regulations on green spaces, playgrounds, environmental and traffic issues.
Model municipality Rüdersdorf
Construction Minister Hubertz had set up an “implementation laboratory” to analyze the municipal application of the Bau-Turbo “scientifically and through an exchange of experiences”. Eight model communities were selected for this purpose. One of them is Rüdersdorf near Berlin. Around 16,500 residents live in the community on 70 square kilometers, but there is only “limited scope” for new settlement areas.
The municipality quickly adopted its own guidelines: the mayor decides for up to six residential units, and the municipal council decides beyond the threshold.
Specifically, inquiries about the construction turbo go to Fritz Quarter. He is head of the planning and building department of the Rüdersdorf model municipality. However, there hasn't been a big crowd so far. “Private builders basically don’t use the construction turbo,” reports Quarter. Right from the start there was a preliminary request: on a property with a single-family house, a coach house should be converted for residential purposes and another residential building should be built in the second row. However, a building application has not yet landed on his table. Since then there have been “discussions, but no further applications.”
The department head says: “What the construction turbo can achieve and in which cases it can be used is not yet well known.”
There are five projects in preparation for commercial builders, four of which are to be converted from ongoing development plan procedures to the construction turbo process. These are construction projects with 20 to 50 residential units each. But here too, the projects have not yet progressed beyond “planning phase 0”. In Rüdersdorf, early preliminary discussions are called in which the project is clarified before the application is submitted.
The scientific support is just beginning. Quarter must carry out monitoring of the construction turbo cases and send regular status reports to the responsible Federal Institute for Building, Urban and Spatial Research (BBSR) and the Ministry of Construction. There will be meetings among the model communities to look at projects on site.
Does Quarter see an advantage of the new regulations? “We are moving through more open urban development processes,” he says. While the classic land-use planning process is “over-regulated and formalized in small parts”, the Bau-Turbo allows a “creative development process” to be carried out together with the builder. “This freedom from formal requirements is pleasing,” says Quarter.
“Overall, the construction turbo may not necessarily achieve what Minister Hubertz had hoped for,” explains the administrative expert. “From today’s perspective, this cannot solve the housing crisis.”
Case study Koblenz
Koblenz, the city on the German Corner where the Rhine and Moselle meet, has around 114,000 inhabitants spread over 105 square kilometers. Mayor David Langner (SPD) recently stated that he did not want to implement “everything” from Bau-Turbo. His head of the building department, Andreas Lukas, explains the reason.
The construction turbo could accelerate housing construction and enable additional apartments, Lukas told the Handelsblatt. "However, it must not lead to carefully negotiated urban planning compromises being undermined. This is politically explosive that we as municipalities have to endure and not the legislative ministerials and politicians far away in Berlin."
Lukas cites outdoor residential developments as an example. The new land use plan, which was negotiated over the years, determines the settlement boundaries. “We are not touching such a compromise with the construction turbo, otherwise it would lead to a lot of public anger.”
A student dormitory was another project that, according to Lukas, was rejected. "It would have been three times larger than the surrounding buildings. Of course that's not possible."
However, from his point of view, the construction turbo makes sense where commercial space is to be converted into living space.
“The number of investor inquiries and therefore the administrative effort has increased enormously,” reports Lukas. The time required is great. “Our building committee now also meets once a month, no longer every three months.”
The problem is: "We deal with the projects, issue preliminary building permits and thereby confirm the admissibility under planning law, but if in the end the economic viability is not right for the investors, they often don't build. This has increased in the last few months."
