The Regional Building Societie’s Home Construction Finance from 1959 to 1995.

The article deals with the establishment of housing finance by public building societies. The building society reform of 1938/39 resulted in guidelines for the redevelopment of the building society sector. After the end of World War II in West-Germany the development of building societies started on the basis of the reform policies of 1938.
Economically, in the postwar period the public building societies carried out a concentration process by a series of company-fusions. The success story of the building societies was primarily caused by the following four factors:
- The enormous scale of war damage and the needs of the incoming refugees and displaced persons.
- Saving with building associations appeared in a situation where for house building was not enough capital available, an ideal instrument to stimulate housing construction.
- The Adenauer government releyed in particular on private housing because of socio-political considerations.
- Caused by the population´s experience of two inflations property hat won more attractiveness than ever before.

The data show the main developments: a huge increase in contract holdings;and the sequence of boom in the seventies, stagnation in the eighties and the repeated boom in the nineties; progressive shift in the proportions of the public to the private building societies.
The welfare-state control of the building finance reached a new level by means of intervention with financial subventions.

Data-Tables with timeseries can be downloaded via the search- and downloadsystem HISTAT. HISTAT is offerd in German language only. The study´s data are available under the topic ´Bautätigkeit, Wohnen´ (i.e. building operations and living).