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Germany's shortage of affordable housing in urban centers remains one of the country's biggest challenges. After successive federal governments set ambitious nationwide construction targets – culminating in pledges of up to 400,000 new residential units per year – the current government has shifted course. Rather than fixing a numeric goal, it has embarked on a two‑stage overhaul of the German Federal Building Code (BauGB). The first of these measures, the "Act to Accelerate Residential Construction and Secure Housing" (Housing Acceleration Act, BGBl. 2025 I No. 257), entered into force on October 30, 2025. It introduces a suite of planning instruments intended to remove perceived regulatory brakes on development. The central question is whether these changes will translate into materially faster, more scalable development of multi-unit housing – or whether outcome will continue to hinge on municipal appetite.
The Housing Acceleration Act in a Nutshell
The Housing Acceleration Act introduces three key changes:
1. "Building Turbo"
The most significant innovation is the new Section 246e BauGB, commonly referred to as the "Bauturbo" provision. It enables deviations from planning law requirements for projects aimed at creating new housing, provided the municipality gives its consent and the project remains consistent with public interests, considering neighboring interests. In undeveloped areas, this tool only applies to projects located in a "spatial connection" with planned or unplanned inner zones.
Key to the new mechanism is the independent municipal consent requirement introduced in Section 36a BauGB. Unlike the common municipal approval, municipalities may refuse to provide their consent for broader planning policy reasons, and this consent cannot be substituted by higher authorities, i.e. higher authorities cannot consent on behalf of the municipalities. In addition, there is no enforceable right to consent. In practice, the Bauturbo's effectiveness will heavily depend on the willingness of municipalities to make use of it.
2. Possible Deviation from Noise Protection Limits
The new Section 9(1) No. 23a BauGB introduces an addition to the toolbox of planning instruments by allowing municipalities to set noise protection standards more flexibly. Municipalities may now define specific noise emission thresholds and – in "justified cases" – deviate from the standards of the Technical Instructions on Noise (TA Lärm). This intends to provide practical solutions for managing noise conflicts arising from higher-density development, thereby unlocking further housing potential.
However, the effectiveness of this option remains uncertain. Since the prescribed noise limits primarily serve to protect healthy living and working conditions, deviations are only permissible in narrowly defined exceptional cases. The new provision describes such cases as "justified", without further defining the term, which creates considerable legal uncertainty. The potential for invalidating an entire zoning plan due to errors in setting noise standards presents an additional risk. To address this risk, the new Section 216a BauGB authorizes building authorities to impose noise protection measures even on permitted residential buildings if the underlying zoning plan is declared invalid due to its noise protection provisions.
3. Expanded Exemptions
The amended Section 31(3) BauGB enables exemptions from the stipulations of a zoning plan not only in individual cases but also "in several comparable cases." This change gives municipalities greater flexibility to permit coordinated projects such as upward extensions, or other forms of residential density densification across multiple properties without requiring the existence of atypical circumstances. The former limitation to areas with constrained housing markets has been removed. However, the broadened scope of exemptions is not a downhill finish to achieve the intended acceleration effect. The practical impact will largely depend on the extent to which municipalities are willing to make use of the expanded exemptions. In practice, the former exemption provision proved ineffective because its application was left to the discretion of local building authorities. This fundamental approach remains unchanged.
Outlook
The Housing Acceleration Act extends and refines familiar strategies rather than revolutionizing them. It creates additional flexibilities – most notably through Section 246e's deviation mechanism, broader exemption, and a new approach to noise control. Each of these instruments, however, shifts decisive control to municipalities and preserves wide discretion. Whether the "building turbo" ignites will therefore depend on local political willingness and administrative capacity. Where municipalities actively use these tools to enable further housing projects, acceleration is possible. Where they hesitate, the law's outcome is limited to adding options on paper.
Under German planning law, project developers already had access to instruments allowing deviations from the provisions of a zoning plan, namely through the granting of exceptions and exemptions. Considering the strong discretionary position of the municipalities and the absence of any enforceable right to obtain consent, the "building turbo" is likely to offer project developers only limited additional benefit. Its practical relevance will therefore remain confined to narrowly defined exceptional cases. The "building turbo" provision is valid until December 31, 2030.
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