The Federal Association of the German Real Estate Industry (BID) criticises the short-term conversion of KfW products in the Federal Funding for Efficient Buildings (BEG). According to KfW, new funding conditions will apply from 21 July 2026 for BEG heating subsidies and for the systemic renovation of residential and non-residential buildings.
Until the start of the new funding conditions, no new confirmations of the application can be issued. These technical funding confirmations, or BzA for short, are a prerequisite for a project to be registered for funding at all. During the changeover phase, applications are only possible with an already existing valid BzA ID. The deadline for this is July 20, 2026 at 8 p.m.
BID Chairman Dirk Wohltorf, President of the German Real Estate Association IVD, explains:
"It's a bitter déjà vu. The overnight funding stop at KfW on 24 January 2022 destroyed enormous trust at the time. We had hoped that politicians had learned from this mistake. Now owners, companies, energy consultants and financiers are again experiencing a short-term changeover. Again without sufficient warning. Again in the middle of ongoing planning.
According to the information available to us, central funding modules will be significantly restricted. Among other things, efficiency house standards, bonuses and repayment subsidies are affected. The planned reduction of eligible costs for efficiency measures in apartment buildings is particularly serious. In the future, only 30,000 euros for the first residential unit, 15,000 euros for the second to sixth residential units and only 8,000 euros from the seventh residential unit onwards will be taken into account. This means that the subsidy is massively losing its effect in large apartment buildings and entire housing stocks. Those who modernize many apartments at once receive significantly less support per apartment.
The BID sees the change in BEG funding as a fatal signal to the entire real estate industry. There can hardly be any talk of planning security here. This is the opposite of an investment-friendly funding policy.
Construction and renovation projects are planned over years and coordinated with banks, companies, owners and users. Funding conditions are a central component of financing. Anyone who wants to build housing and renovate buildings must offer reliability. Funding policy must not create new facts from one day to the next. This damages trust. And it slows down investments exactly where they are urgently needed.
The BID is particularly critical of the short conversion phase. KfW points out that applications with an already existing valid BzA ID can still be submitted until 20 July. For many projects that are currently in preparation, however, this transitional regulation does not go far enough.
The short-term changeover is in contradiction to the political signals that have been sent recently. The investor conference in Frankfurt am Main, the action plan presented there by the Federal Minister of Building and the announced pact for property are associated with cautious expectations of a new dawn in residential construction.
The talks of the past few weeks have given hope. This change now sends a different signal: funding cannot be relied upon. This is poison for long-term investments.
The BID calls on the Federal Government to explain the changes transparently, to effectively protect ongoing planning and to ensure reliable transitional arrangements. If you want to achieve more new housing construction, more renovation and more climate protection in the building stock, you have to make funding policy plannable and investment-friendly.
The real estate industry is ready to invest. To do this, it needs clear framework conditions. And it needs a policy that talks to the industry before facts are created."
