Two billion euros
Geywitz wants to quickly implement KfW funding for the construction industry
January 19, 2024, 6:38 p.m
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After a serious crisis, the construction and housing industry is now being relieved by a KfW funding program. It wants to make one billion euros available for each of the next two years. The program particularly applies to the lower and middle price segments.
The hard-hit construction and housing industry can look forward to a new funding program from the state-run Credit Union for Reconstruction (KfW) worth two billion euros. “I am pleased that we have received additional money,” said Federal Construction Minister Klara Geywitz to the “Handelsblatt” with a view to the recently given green light by the Budget Committee in the Bundestag.
“We will now launch the new KfW funding as quickly as possible so that the billion-dollar program can come onto the market quickly,” said Geywitz. According to the SPD politician, one billion euros are available for 2024 and 2025. “We only want to promote apartments in the lower and middle price segment,” emphasized the minister. Increased costs and high interest rates have caused orders in the construction industry to collapse. As a result, political goals in new housing construction became far more distant.
The construction industry welcomes the new funding program
Geywitz “convinced the budget committee in the final stages of its deliberations of an interest rate reduction program for housing construction – that is a good sign given the precarious budget situation and the situation on the rental market,” explained Tim-Oliver Müller, general manager of the Main Association of Germans Construction industry.
The government is essentially adopting the proposal that the socially oriented housing industry has long been demanding. “We need an interest subsidy so that housing construction, which has almost completely stopped, can finally be resumed,” said Axel Gedaschko, President of the leading association of the housing industry GdW. A planned area and construction cost limitation is also affordable and feasible. “If this plan is implemented, then housing can be created again for people with middle and low incomes,” he explained. Gedaschko praised the decision as “exactly the right signal.”
The general manager of the Central Association of the German Construction Industry, Felix Pakleppa, now spoke of a “small glimmer of hope”. “But there is still no reason to give the all-clear. What matters now is the design of the program.”