From Renovation Backlog to Educational Boost: Strategies out of the School Construction Crisis

Stuttgart, Germany, November 4, 2025. Germany's school infrastructure is at its limits. There is a huge need for construction and refurbishment, while in budgeting terms, many coffers of federal states and municipalities are empty. The good news is that there are clearly-defined solutions and approaches to accelerate the implementation of urgently required measures. An important financial lever is the Special Fund adopted by the German Parliament on March 18, 2025. To accelerate renovations, the federal state of Bavaria enables fast construction and has launched building type ‘E’ pilot projects. Cities like Cologne demonstrate how the renovation backlog can be systematically and efficiently reduced with multi-project management and strategic real estate management. The consulting firm Drees & Sommer SE provides long-term project advice to cities and municipalities in the fields of construction, real estate and infrastructure.

The plaster is flaking off the walls, the wind is whistling through drafty windows, the taps are dripping and the rooms have long been much too small: the latest estimates of the government-owned KfW Development Bank suggest that the renovation backlog at German schools amounts to around 55 billion euros. This is the amount needed to restore the dilapidated buildings to a functional and safe condition.[i] At the same time, student numbers continue to grow. The Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) forecasts that the number of students will rise by about 758,000 to a total of 11.8 million in Germany[ii]. In addition, there are new requirements such as the nationwide expansion of all-day programs at elementary schools from August 2026, along with constantly growing cities and conurbations[iii].

More than just Cracks in the Wall

Thomas Köhler, Drees & Sommer’s expert for educational constructions, comments: “The structural condition of many schools is a serious threat to the health and the effective learning and teaching of pupils and teachers. If you do not feel comfortable in a room, you are less able to concentrate and develop positively.“

He supports local authorities with comprehensive consulting services so that schools can resolve these problems or prevent them from arising in the first place when constructing new buildings. He has already participated in a broad range of school projects across Germany. In these matters, he brings together technical expertise, pedagogical understanding and strategic planning.

Thomas Köhler knows the challenges many municipalities are facing today. Although responsibility for the school system formally lies with the federal states, the municipal authorities are generally responsible for the school buildings. “In many cases, there is a lack of staff with the necessary expertise. Bureaucracy makes fast construction more difficult and financial resources are scarce,” says the expert. The EUR 500 billion Special Fund for Infrastructure and Climate Neutrality (SVIK), adopted by the German Parliament in March 2025, could provide a remedy in this respect. Almost 100 billion euros will be distributed to federal states and local governments[i]. It remains to be seen how much will actually be applied to the renovation and expansion of schools. However, according to Thomas Köhler: “an opportunity now exists to swiftly provide urgently needed funds in an unbureaucratic way.”

Baby Boomer Schools in Need of Renovation

However, new construction and renovation projects are a complex issue, even if the funds are available. Many local authorities are facing not only organizational but also construction-related challenges. This is where the work of Thomas Köhler and his colleagues from Drees & Sommer comes to bear. They offer advice in the fields of school refurbishment, renovation and expansion, and have participated in many major projects throughout Germany, as for example in Cologne. Although the need is high nationwide , there are some buildings that are in particularly bad shape “Buildings constructed between the 1950s and 1970s were built under the pressure to create space quickly and cost-effectively. The focus was on the number of rooms and basic functionality. To put it briefly: quantity was more important than quality,” Thomas Köhler points out. Reinforced concrete skeleton buildings with exposed aggregate concrete façades and single-glazed aluminum windows are typical of this period, for example. These were built efficiently but are now considered dreary and problematic in terms of energy efficiency. “The consequences are now apparent, ranging from harmful substances in the materials through insufficient heat insulation to single aluminum glazing and obsolete heating and ventilation systems,” the expert adds.

There is also a lot of catching up to do with regard to accessibility. Thomas Köhler explains: “Many buildings are scarcely accessible to people with mobility issues. Although there are funding programs for accessibility upgrades, they are far from sufficient in view of the extensive renovation backlog.”[i] When the school construction expert talks about renovating baby-boomer schools, he usually means a fundamental modernization. “A fresh coat of paint or a new façade is not enough. If you want to renovate along sustainable lines, you have to go deeply into the building fabric,“ he continues. This is because energy efficiency action alone cannot eliminate pollutants such as asbestos, PCBs or mold. In addition to structural deficiencies, teachers and school administrators are also increasingly complaining about space-related shortcomings. Small classrooms, a lack of multi-purpose rooms and insufficient space for different approaches to modern, team-oriented learning are making everyday school life more difficult. Old school buildings are often still designed for half-day schooling, whereas schools today have to offer all-day programs and individual support in many cases. The planning figure of two square meters per pupil currently used in school construction is simply too low in view of new pedagogical and organizational requirements[ii].

A Roadmap for Tackling the Renovation Backlog: Cologne’s Multi-Project Management 

Thomas Köhler is convinced that “in order to deal with the renovation backlog at German schools, coordinated measures and some type of refurbishment roadmap is needed.” 

A roadmap of this nature must be conceived with a regional outlook and clear priorities. And it must not end at the borders of individual municipalities. The basis for this is strategic real estate consultation that systematically collects large-scale data on the various educational institutions, analyzes construction and functional needs, and defines the priorities.

What this can look like in practice has been demonstrated in Cologne for the past few years. Back in 2017, the cathedral city engaged Drees & Sommer – a company that specializes in construction, real estate and infrastructure consulting – for the renovation, expansion and new construction of several school building projects. By 2023, seven measures managed with the support of Drees & Sommer were completed successfully and on schedule. The success led to renewed award of the contract to Drees & Sommer relating to another part of the second package of school construction measures of the City of Cologne. The local administration runs a multi-project program across 22 schools that soon proved to be a success. “We are not planning the construction work individually, but coordinate the 22 projects as a package,” explains team head Anja Könings, who is responsible for the project at Drees & Sommer. The expert adds: “This enables us to create synergy effects, saves time and resources, and results in faster implementation times.” In addition to project management support and project steering, the range of services provided by Drees & Sommer’s expert teams as part of the multi-project management of the school construction program includes quality management services based on the building information modeling (BIM) approach. BIM is a digital planning method of networked collaboration that gathers all relevant data of a construction project in a digital 3D model. In this way, planners, clients and experts of all trades can simultaneously access updated data, identify problems at an early stage and efficiently coordinate all processes. In the project in Cologne, an interdisciplinary team of around twenty experts coordinates the whole project using digital tools .

Another key feature of the multi-project management process is the awarding of contracts by Dress & Sommer to general contractors or full-service construction companies. Tina Könings comments: “This saves us the time-consuming work of awarding individual tasks.” The work is performed by a single contractor, which speeds up the project, and also minimizes the risks involved. According to the project manager, this cross-locational approach offers benefits: “We use the synergies between our different subprojects, in particular with regard to planning elements, the coordination of construction times or the shared use of resources. The same applies to our specialists. Our team is made up of people with educational, sociological and construction expertise. This enables us not only to create schools that are suitable in terms of their construction, but also to take into account, already in the design process, what is required in modern learning environments.”

Bavaria Builds Faster with Building Type ‘E’

Building type ‘E’ is another promising way to significantly accelerate construction projects in the education sector. The federal state of Bavaria is successfully driving forward this innovative construction approach. The letter ‘E’ stands for ‘easy’ and ‘efficient’. The aim is to design modular, flexible and standardized school buildings. It can be used to shorter construction times, reduce costs and at the same time create educationally high-quality learning environments. With the modular construction approach, buildings can quickly be adapted to changing student numbers, and brought in line with energetic and functional requirements.

But why is something that sounds so simple and sensible in theory not implemented throughout the whole of Germany? “The legal and organizational framework conditions for implementing similar models are still lacking in most of Germany. Nationwide application still requires extensive coordination with regard to standardization and legislation,” explains Thomas Köhler. “The federal state of Bavaria, on the other hand, created the legal requirements for the use of building type E at an early stage. In summer 2023, the Bavarian Ministry of Construction converted Article 63 of the Bavarian Building Code (Bauordnung) from a mandatory in a discretionary provision[MC1] ,” adds the school construction expert. As a result, authorities have been allowed to regularly deviate from existing standards. Divergence from the actual set of rules makes a more resource-efficient, simple and less expansive construction method possible without jeopardizing safety. Several ‘E’ type construction projects are in progress in Central Franconia and Upper Bavaria[i].

New Ways of Financing

Local authorities currently have to reckon with a figure of around 34,000 euros up to over 77,000 euros per renovated school place. For new school buildings, the cost per square meter of approved main usable space ranges from around 4,800 to more than 6,400 euros, depending on the type of school. The average total estimated cost to build a new elementary school is about 30 million euros. However, there is a strong upward trend in prices and construction costs. Prices vary depending on the size of the city in which the school is located. In large cities, like Hamburg and Berlin, costs of new construction have grown from about 3,300 euros per square meter to more than 4,000 euros in recent years[i][ii].

As local authorities have long been unable to bear the costs alone, the focus is increasingly on alternative financing and subsidy models. Drees & Sommer advises local authorities on how to keep track of which subsidies are available in the bureaucratic jungle and where they can be found. This not only includes the identification of suitable subsidy programs, but also strategic planning and making the actual application.

In addition to classic financing approaches, some municipalities rely on private investors and public private partnership models to fund the renovation and construction of new schools. It also involves private investors injecting fresh funds into educational properties, which are then rented by the local authorities on a long-term basis. Thomas Köhler comments: “This opens up new financial scope for overstretched municipal budgets, as the investment costs can be spread via rental agreements.” The trend toward alternative funding methods is additionally fueled by growing investor interest and the need for sustainable, net zero construction methods. Real Blue KVG, a subsidiary of Drees & Sommer, develops suitable financing structures for municipalities, which efficiently integrate subsidy programs in such models, and thus combine a maximum of public grants with private capital.

More than just Lip Service

It takes more than just good ideas to ensure that projects of this type (currently in Bavaria and Cologne) do not just exist on paper. “Political backing is required, as well as an adequate budget that is aimed at specific targets, rather than being applied in dribs and drabs,“ claims Thomas Köhler from Drees & Sommer. „Only if the federal, state and local authorities accept joint responsibility and set clear priorities can the challenges in school construction be overcome as a long-term measure. Real change can only succeed if everyone, from the state to the private sector, pulls together in the future. This applies to financing, the development of innovative solutions, and the critical analysis of existing standards. Only in this way, complex large-scale projects can be realized faster, with more cost efficiently and a higher quality.” If we wish to catch up as a business location, we must not only permit these partnerships, but actively promote them. The state does not have to build everything itself. But it must ensure that buildings get built. Our children, the future generations, have a right to this.”