Mittelstand: Goldbeck widersetzt sich dem Abschwung im Wohnungsbau

The German housing market is in crisis, with only 185,000 new builds forecast for 2026, the lowest level in years. Goldbeck, a Mittelstand business based in Bielefeld, has bucked this trend. In the 2024/25 fiscal year, the company recorded a record order intake of 7.3 billion euros, with revenue from housing projects climbing from 671 million euros to over 1 billion euros.

Overall turnover remained stable at 6.3 billion euros. Business leaders Jörg-Uwe and Jan-Hendrik Goldbeck expect turnover to reach a "seven before the decimal point" level by the end of the 2027 fiscal year, barring a particularly harsh winter. The disparity between order intake and revenue highlights a dilemma facing the German construction sector: the slow pace of implementation.

Jörg-Uwe Goldbeck noted that Germany has become slower in all respects. The Goldbecks present themselves as solution providers for the challenges faced by the entire nation, including lower costs in high-wage Germany, faster construction, and more housing. Their approach, established in 1969 by Ortwin Goldbeck, involves manufacturing components in-house that are only assembled on-site to reduce construction and labor time and costs.

Goldbeck's clientele includes tech giants Tesla and Biontech, as well as automotive manufacturer BMW, Siemens, and the Bundeswehr. They have achieved a 14 percent share of the housing market in just eight years, with Jan-Hendrik Goldbeck predicting a 5 percent growth in this segment. The obstacles to Germany's housing shortage are high construction costs, rising interest rates, and uncertainty due to the Iran war.

Experts point to these factors as the reasons for the weak development. The government-planned Building Type E aims to allow builders to deviate from costly comfort and equipment standards without it being considered a deficiency or risking legal action. However, until these issues are resolved, companies that realize cost advantages through serial building are being held back.

The German government's plan to promote the Building Type E is intended to address these challenges. Meanwhile, Goldbeck has set its sights on international expansion, investing in Europe's growing demand for data centers and entering the U.S. market through a joint venture with Mortenson and a stake in the Austrian specialist Zaunergroup.

With 10 percent growth expected in the U.S. market, the Bielefeld-based company plans to focus on other domestic construction industry projects to compete with the boom in European data center construction.