DÜSSELDORF (dpa-AFX) - According to preliminary figures, North Rhine-Westphalia's building authorities issued fewer building permits for apartments in 2022 than in the previous year. This was determined by the State Statistical Office. In 2021, building permits were issued for 60,911 apartments, but this figure fell to 59,082 in 2022 - a decrease of three percent.

The decline was therefore mainly "new residential buildings with one or two apartments", it said in a statement on Tuesday - so one and two-family houses. The number of building permits for single-family homes fell by 13.9 percent to 11,081, it said. Two-family homes were down 16.4 percent to 3,802, it said.

"These declines are likely due in part to the expiration of the Baukindergeld program in the first quarter of 2021 and the end of subsidies for energy-efficiency level 55 homes on Jan. 31, 2022," the statisticians wrote./idt/DP/tih