Roof battens, structural solid timber, and sawn construction timber all cost less in Germany than they did in 2021, and the country’s timber trade has cautioned the federal government that shrinking the wood supply through regulation would push prices higher and reduce the material’s cost advantage. That is according to the Gesamtverband Deutscher Holzhandel (GD Holz), the peak body for the German timber trade, whose price comparison published late last week shows lime and gypsum running more than 77 per cent above pre-crisis levels, cement nearly 58 per cent higher, and construction sand up more than 42 per cent.
Timber is the clear exception among building materials, GD Holz claims, with roof batten prices ending 2025 at 14 per cent below their 2021 level. Konstruktionsvollholz, the kiln-dried and strength-graded solid timber that frames German houses, sold for more than 13 per cent less, and sawn construction timber came in more than 1 per cent cheaper, on figures the association presents as its own, with the release identifying no underlying dataset.
Wholesale timber prices are currently rising, the association concedes, and it argues the longer record still runs in wood’s favour. Processing wood takes far less energy than producing most mineral building materials, the release argues, so rising energy prices have a much smaller effect on timber than on cement, lime, or gypsum. “Wood is the more reliable building material in times of crisis,” Maximilian Habisreutinger, chairman of GD Holz, said. Energy-intensive materials absorb rising costs directly, he argued, while wood’s regional origin and lower energy dependence keep it considerably steadier, bringing more planning security and lower cost risks for builders and processors.
Aimed at Berlin, the warning claims that individual political and regulatory initiatives would indirectly reduce the available supply of wood, even though the federal government’s official goal is to increase its use. GD Holz stops short of naming the measures, and Habisreutinger called on the government to focus on the effective and sustainable use of a resource he said comes mostly from home and European forests, which are far less dependent on global supply chains and volatile transport costs.
As it stands, wood already frames just under a quarter of Germany’s newly approved buildings, a construction rate that now exceeds 30 per cent in the south of the country. It comes as the Hauptverband der Deutschen Holzindustrie, which represents the country’s wood-products manufacturers, reported in May that sentiment across the sector had run below zero since early 2023, with the six-month outlook darkening as war costs in Iran climbed.
Recovery so far shows up in approvals rather than completions, with permits for detached and semi-detached houses climbing 15.6 per cent across the first two months of 2026 and multi-unit approvals rising 20.4 per cent, in a construction market GD Holz still describes as weak. The association warns that squeezing the supply now would send timber prices higher just as demand starts to return.
