The minister countered allegations that the recently passed Building Energy Act would lead to the “expropriation” of owners of older properties.
(Photo: IMAGO/Daniel Kubirski)
Berlin Federal Construction Minister Klara Geywitz has announced more support for families when buying a house. “We have a lot of old houses and we have a growing need for living space and affordable single-family homes,” said the SPD politician to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”.
“In order to bring this together, I want to launch a new program to promote the purchase of existing properties, in addition to the existing support for new construction.” The volume has not yet been determined. Negotiations within the federal government were still ongoing.
From the minister’s point of view, the new funding program could also stop or at least slow down the decline in the value of unrenovated houses. “If we strengthen the demand for existing houses, that should also stabilize the prices in the portfolio,” said Geywitz. “And if more renovations are carried out as a result, that is also a benefit for the environment and climate.”
The minister countered allegations that the recently passed Building Energy Act would lead to the “expropriation” of owners of older properties because they would lose value. “Even without the Building Energy Act, heating with oil and gas would become steadily and significantly more expensive due to CO2 pricing, so that modern heating systems would have to be installed,” said Geywitz.
In addition, the real estate boom has led to ridiculously high prices even for aging houses because of cheap money. “The boom is over. This is the main reason for the falling prices.”
Geywitz received support from the Association of Building Energy Consultants (GIH). “Anyone who claims that the Building Energy Act is to blame for the destruction of property values because property prices are depressed is wrong and is already simplifying their argument,” said GIH Federal Chairman Stefan Bolln to the newspaper. “Even without Robert Habeck, many people want to save CO2, and everyone probably wants to reduce their own heating costs.” This will also be due to the fact that unrenovated houses are no longer as popular as well-insulated ones.
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