Two funding pots for energy-saving construction suddenly ran out. Are home builders now threatening to fall by the wayside again? The Union warns that the money will not last long.
From the point of view of the Union, state subsidies for energy-saving new buildings threaten to expire again in a few weeks. The subsidy pot is already half empty after 40 days, criticized parliamentary group leader Ulrich Lange.
“A pound of butter has a longer shelf life than the traffic light housing programs.” A new funding program – albeit with different criteria – is planned for 2023.
According to the Ministry of Economics, from mid-April to the end of May, 366 private and commercial house builders applied for funding from the KfW “EH40 Sustainability” program. This supports new buildings that consume 40 percent of the energy of a standard house and meet the requirements for a quality seal. The applications have a volume of 165 million euros, said State Secretary Patrick Graichen at the request of the Union. According to preliminary planning, 300 million euros are available for the program, which will actually run until the end of the year.
demand fluctuates
The Ministry emphasized that it is not possible to predict when the sum will be exhausted. “Demand here is currently very volatile.” In the second half of May, only applications with a volume of around 2.5 million euros were made every week – before that it was around 20 million euros every week.
Lange called for long-term planning security for citizens and companies who wanted to build. This year, several programs by the state development bank KfW for house builders suddenly ran out. Most recently, an application freeze was imposed on a program after a few hours because the pot, which was capped at one billion euros, had been exhausted. At that time it was about new buildings with somewhat less strict criteria.
After the end of the current program, the federal government wants to completely change the funding under the title “climate-friendly construction”. Exact plans are not yet available. The focus should be more on renovations than on new buildings. According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the program should also focus in particular on greenhouse gas emissions from buildings.
