Enlarge image
Newly installed windows: Builders can again rely on grants
Photo: Thomas Trutschel / photothek / IMAGO
If you are planning a completely new house, you still have to wait.
But things are starting again for climate-friendly renovations: From Tuesday, citizens in Germany can again submit new applications for KfW grants for energy-efficient renovations.
»The refurbishment funding within the framework of the Federal Funding for Efficient Buildings (BEG) starts again.
The funding conditions for renovation measures remain unchanged," said the Federal Ministry of Economics.
The development bank has already started to process the old applications that were received up to the temporary application freeze on January 23.
Last Wednesday, the Federal Government and the Budget Committee of the Bundestag provided 9.5 billion euros for the BEG, thus enabling the resumption of the renovation funding, which had been temporarily stopped.
Funding for new construction will be revised
According to the ministry, the money is to be used both for the processing of old applications submitted before January 24th and for the resumption of the refurbishment subsidy and the new edition of the EH40 new building subsidy.
The 9.5 billion euros should therefore "secure the financing until the regular budget is passed".
The preparations for the new building subsidy according to the EH40 standard are still underway, it was said.
It is to be resumed under changed conditions, while those for refurbishments remain the same.
On January 24th, shortly before the end of the application period, the federal government announced that the current energy efficiency subsidy from the state-owned KfW bank had been stopped with immediate effect.
In addition to the new building subsidies according to the KfW efficiency standard EH55 and the higher EH40 standard, this also affected the energy-related refurbishment of buildings.
According to Economics Minister Robert Habeck, the reason for the funding stop was that the funds for the continuation of the program had already been exhausted.
(Read more about the background to the end of the funding here.)
Efficiency House 55 program is a thing of the past
After sharp protests from the housing industry, the Ministry of Economics announced that applications received before January 24th would still be processed.
This meant that housing companies and building owners still had a week to submit applications in time, because the so-called Efficiency House 55 program (EH55) was originally supposed to expire on January 31st.
EH55 means the buildings use only 55 percent of the energy of a standard home.
The Efficiency House 55 program, which makes fewer specifications than EH40, is also not to be resumed and was finally discontinued on January 24th.
However, the government still wants to process the applications that were received by January 23.
mmq/dpa/AFP