Stock Photo - 20 May 2022, Lower Saxony, Sehnde: Denise and Thiemo Merz stand in front of their new half-timbered house in a new development in Sehnde-Rethmar in the Hanover region. Two thirds of all the up to 200 newly built half-timbered houses in Germany each year are built in southern Lower Saxony, according to the German Half-Timbered Towns Working Group. In Rethmar, just outside Hanover, 14 houses are currently being built exclusively in half-timbered construction in a new development area. (to dpa: ""Half-timbered house instead of bungalow - traditional construction method still in demand"") Photo: Julian Stratenschulte/dpa. - Sehnde/Lower Saxony/Germany