The temporary subsidy for energy efficiency standard EH55 continues to meet only moderate interest from investors. The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection informed the “Handelsblatt” that as of April 13th, approximately 23,400 housing units have been funded with a combined credit and grant volume of about 2.3 billion euros. A spokesperson noted that about 553 million euros remain in the funding pot. This KfW program was initiated in mid-December 2025 to stimulate construction of approved but not yet commenced building projects, and it is scheduled to run until the end of June 2026. In total, the federal government has made 800 million euros in subsidies available. To boost demand, the interest rate was effectively reduced to one percent for a ten-year term with a ten-year fixed interest rate and two initial years of no repayment. The Union group is calling for changes to the terms. Jan-Marco Luczak, the parliamentary group’s spokesperson for building policy for the CDU/CSU, stated that the subsidy program is proceeding “far too sluggishly because the Federal Ministry of Finance sets excessively strict funding conditions”. He argued that if a developer has already prepared a building site or felled a tree, they are excluded from the subsidy. The CDU politician added, “This way, we cannot activate the construction backlog. It would be important and necessary to allow for a more flexible solution here”.
Economy / Finance
