Germany’s DIY sector has been unexciting in the last few years. There was some evidence of catch-up spending in 2009 to 2011, but since then the sector has done little. The collapse and disappearance of Praktiker has not helped. But we think that in Germany, as elsewhere in Northern Europe, there are reasons to be very cautious about the prospects for DIY spending.

The trend back to living in inner cities is happening in Germany, as elsewhere. The proportion of people renting their homes is one of the highest in Europe and has edged up further in recent years. The population is ageing and less inclined to do DIY itself.

This report provides data on spending on DIY goods, DIY specialists' sales, leading specialists' sales performance and online activity. In our consumer research for this report we asked which retailers consumers had bought DIY goods from in the last year, both online and in-store, and we asked which factors determined their choice of DIY retailer. We also asked what DIY our respondents had carried out over the previous year and what DIY plans they had for the coming year.