East German construction industry: turnover falls despite increase in orders

The eastern German construction industry is not yet seeing a sustainable upturn despite rising incoming orders. In the first quarter of 2026, turnover in the main construction sector fell significantly, according to the Construction Industry Association East in Potsdam. At the same time, although incoming orders increased nominally by 4.5 percent to 5.5 billion euros, the real increase was only 0.6 percent.

"At the beginning of 2026, construction activity suffered a weather-related setback and incoming orders did not yet show any consistently positive signals for the development of the construction industry in the coming months," said Managing Director Robert Momberg.

Residential construction increases in orders

Orders in residential construction rose particularly strongly with a nominal increase of 16.9 percent to 864.9 million euros. Public construction also increased. In contrast, incoming orders in commercial construction shrank by 7.4 percent to 2.4 billion euros. Momberg commented: "In view of the current clearly negative development in high-volume commercial construction, there are still no signs of a far-reaching recovery in the construction industry."

Significant slump in turnover

In contrast, company turnover fell significantly in the first quarter. The industry generated a total of 3.8 billion euros. In nominal terms, this was 5.7 percent less than a year earlier; adjusted for prices, the decline was 9.6 percent. Residential construction slumped particularly sharply: Sales there fell by 20 percent to 646.1 million euros.

"Weather-related downtime led to delays in construction activity, but the previously rather weak demand dynamics also had an impact on the poor sales result," explained Momberg.

Differences between the federal states

Regional developments varied. In Berlin, incoming orders rose sharply, while sales fell significantly. Brandenburg reported a fall in incoming orders but a sharp rise in sales. In Saxony, both orders and sales declined. Saxony-Anhalt, on the other hand, recorded a significant increase in orders with a simultaneous decline in sales.