The news came as a surprise, and it hit many builders with full force: on Monday, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection announced that KfW Bank funding for energy-efficient buildings would be temporarily suspended.

While some programs are being revised and relaunched - such as those for energy-related renovation - others, such as that for the so-called Efficiency House 55, will be completely terminated.

The federal government believes that this construction standard has long since established itself on the market.

The fact that the previous government did not adapt the program was a "climate policy mismanagement".

The said program was supposed to expire at the end of the month.

Due to the flood of applications in the past few days and weeks, it has now been stopped with immediate effect.

Rainer Schulz

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Local project developers are also affected by the cancellation.

Heinz-Günter Lang, who has built many office and residential buildings in Frankfurt, is outraged: "This is an example of the unreliability of politics," he says.

He had adapted his projects to a particularly high energy standard in order to be able to apply for the funding.

KfW has confirmed to him that the application must be available by the end of the month.

"You adjust to it, whole teams work on it, and then comes the cancellation." Two of his projects are affected, it's about a million amount in funding.

Another Frankfurt developer, who is mainly active in the office district of Niederrad, reports that 2.5 million euros in funding has now been lost.

Criticism from project developers

The associations are also outraged: The Bund Deutscher Baumeister criticizes that the promotion of energy-efficient buildings was stopped completely abruptly.

"The procedure triggers maximum shaking of heads in the industry and leaves families who want to build, everyone who invests professionally in housing construction, and ultimately also those who are desperately looking for apartments, out in the rain," says Andreas Ostermann, Chairman of the Association of German Master Builders and Architects and engineers in Hesse/Frankfurt.

It remains to be seen how the traffic light coalition intends to achieve its goal of 400,000 new residential units per year, as agreed in the coalition agreement.

There is “maximum uncertainty” in the industry.

Axelexpandr, head of the Association of the Southwest German Housing Industry, sees it similarly: “The decision to discontinue KfW funding hits the socially oriented housing companies to the core.

In this way, new affordable and climate-friendly living space is destroyed before it can even be built.” The companies have firmly calculated the subsidy and many construction projects have already been planned or even started against this background.

As a result of the funding freeze, all previous financial planning is wasted – and without prior notice from one day to the next.

“This step undermines confidence in a reliable funding policy.

That's poison for any investment decision," says Thousand Pounds.

After all, reliability is the most important currency in politics.

Climate goals at risk

He is also concerned about the ecological consequences.

In order to achieve the climate targets for rented apartments by 2030, there is a large funding gap in Hesse.

Grants between 539 million and 1230 million euros are needed - every year.

"If federal funding is now completely eliminated, the need for action for the state of Hesse has become even greater," says Thousand Pounds.

“We want to continue creating climate-friendly, affordable housing.

That is why the Hessian state government must now launch its own attractive climate support for affordable living space.”

Numerous Hessian administrators and homeowners are also unsettled.

"The signal from Berlin comes at an inopportune time, because right now many Hessian administrators are advising the homeowners' associations they oversee on the possibilities of energy-efficient renovation of their buildings," reports Katja Niebling, Managing Director of the Association of Property Managers in Hesse.

The association advises owners and administrators not to stop planning that has already started, but to continue to deal with the topic of energy-efficient building refurbishment.

Homeowners associations should have an individual refurbishment roadmap drawn up for their property.

That way they would know what costs to expect.

“The time to tackle energy-related renovations is right now.

Otherwise we as a society will not be able to achieve the ambitious climate targets,” says Niebling.

She would like politicians to provide reliable framework conditions and sensible incentives for energy-related refurbishment of existing buildings.

"We don't think quick-fix actions like the short-term stop of KfW subsidies are the right way to go."