It's not easy as a promotional bank either.
The usual funding instrument is low interest rates.
But at a time when normal construction loans are already available at interest rates around 1 percent, it is difficult to keep the promotional loans attractive.
Many home builders have long since gone over to foregoing promotional loans because they are also linked to requirements.
Applications have to be made, special insulation materials have to be used, and in the end expensive experts have to approve everything.
Some people who took out a KfW loan came to the conclusion that the interest savings hardly covered the additional costs. In order to remain interesting in this low interest rate environment, the state bank KfW started adding repayment subsidies to its promotional loans some time ago. If you do it right, you can get such handsome gifts of money from the state.
Passing on KfW's own favorable refinancing conditions to the partner banks is now the next step. As a result, interest rates in many subsidy programs are now falling close to zero. Heavenly conditions for builders, one would think. But other worries have long plagued them. Real estate - also because of the long period of low interest rates - has become unaffordable in many places, as are building materials such as wood. Even the cheapest promotional loans are of little help here.