"Disaster for builders": CSU member of parliament castigates freeze on KfW funding

Created: 01/27/2022, 10:00 am

By: Sebastian Grauvogl

In high demand: In view of rising energy prices, many homeowners are investing in the renovation of heating, exterior walls or windows.

Funding programs make this even more attractive.

© Kai Remmers/dpa-tmn

CSU member of parliament Alexander Radwan criticized the halt to KfW funding as an "emergency brake on urgently needed housing construction".

But that does not meet all projects.

District

– A Green in the Ministry of Economics abruptly stops funding for energy-efficient buildings: A through ball for the opposition, which CSU member of the Bundestag Alexander Radwan does not leave uncommented.

In a press release, Radwan castigated the federal government's decision as a "communicative catastrophe and an emergency brake for builders, climate protection in the construction industry and urgently needed housing construction in general".

The traffic light coalition wants to build in an energy-efficient and climate-neutral manner and stomp 400,000 apartments out of the ground every year.

Now she has stopped masses of planned construction projects overnight.

"It doesn't add up," Radwan writes.

Ministry of Economics: "Enormous flood of applications" in January

The Ministry of Economic Affairs justified the decision with an "enormous flood of applications" in January, which would have significantly exceeded the funds available for new buildings according to the energy efficiency standard 55 (55 percent less consumption than a reference house).

In view of the provisional budget management, KfW had to stop the program with immediate effect.

However, the ministry does not see the consequences as dramatic, since the EH55 new building subsidy would have expired at the end of January anyway.

Subsidies for refurbishment measures will be resumed as soon as the money is there. The federal government will make a timely decision on the future of funding for new EH40 buildings.

All of the points mentioned also apply to applications for funding that have already been submitted but have not yet been approved.

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Unlike the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Radwan sees the premature stop as "a catastrophe for the builders".

The news caused "shakes of the head and disappointment among banks, construction companies and private builders" in the region.

Since the subsidies mentioned are often loans and repayment grants, one is talking about sums of money in the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of euros that builders can no longer plan for.

That ruins all security, shoots up the financing and makes building even more expensive in the future.

Energy consultant: Many renovations are still possible

Energy consultant Stefan Moosreiner from the Miesbach engineering office EST was also surprised by the immediate stop in funding.

Specifically, two of his customers are directly affected.

Once it is about a sum of 90,000 euros for the construction of five residential units, once for 52,000 euros for two residential units.

Moosreiner emphasizes that most of his clients in the area of ​​renovation are not harmed by the decision of the Ministry of Economic Affairs: "Nine out of ten of these customers are planning individual renovation measures." For example, replacing the heating system or insulating the outer walls.

All of this would continue to be funded in the usual way by the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA).

The homeowners concerned would not have to put their projects or their financing on hold in any way.

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Kreissparkasse refers to interest-equivalent loans

This assessment is shared at the Kreissparkasse Miesbach-Tegernsee.

The KfW subsidy is usually only a small part of the actual financing of the total investment, the bank reports on request.

Funding plays a role in around a third of new buildings.

The savings bank is not happy with the sudden application freeze.

"That came as a surprise to us too," says spokeswoman Babette Oberwallner.

Alternative support programs cannot be offered to customers.

Interest-equivalent financing, on the other hand, does.

These could often be tailored more individually and precisely to the respective needs than the loans from KfW.

For example, fixed interest rates of 25 years are possible, but in the case of subsidy programs, this ends after ten years.

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