Old building - Purchase and renovation with KfW

Hi guys,

so after a conversation with our independent financial advisor we were quite disillusioned. Not a single bank wanted to offer us both the 308 AND the 261. So we thought: OK then just the 308 at 0.03% and a regular bank loan at 3.8%. 3.8%? That’s high we thought. We were expecting around 2.8-3.0%, but no. Banks don’t go for that. And now: surprise: We’re not taking any loan from the KFW at all because a normal loan offer from Deutsche Bank at 2.98% is cheaper for us or about the same as the 308 and the bank loan at 3.8%! Only that for the Deutsche Bank loan we don’t have any conditions like with the 308. I never thought the Deutsche Bank loan would come out cheaper. It’s about repaying 220,000 euros in 10 years. So I can only advise to definitely sit down early with a financial advisor. We calculated for ages with the KFW loans and then learned otherwise. Now we wanted to manage it with a normal bank loan and use the BAFA single funding for the renovation. But that’s now also off the table from January 1st transitional budget: so funding pause, new budget not until mid-year – and since a CDU government is expected probably no reasonable funding available anymore and all just because of that ego-blondie from the stupid FDP.

My wife and I will soon acquire an old building from the family. Purchase price: 120,000 EUR.
We want to finance the purchase with the new KfW 308 "Young buys old" through a loan over 100k + equity (1st application).

2nd application: After the purchase, a complete renovation is planned, which we want to promote through KfW 261 (approx. 150,000 EUR) + equity. Since the old building has two residential units, there is more than enough available here. We will exclude the expansion of the oil heating and the installation of the heat pump including underfloor heating, which we want to run via KfW 458 + loan for single measure (KfW 358, approx. 60,000).

Is such a constellation of funding programs (KfW 308, 261, 458, 358) possible? If so, will the bank even cooperate if we take out a maximum of 50,000 EUR (if at all) from the bank itself and actually have everything run through KfW? Could one - while adhering to the cumulation limit - also additionally include the BAFA subsidies for the building envelope?

If this is a market-related purchase price despite being within the family, I actually suspect an old building (the vernacular term is often used inflationarily and often refers only to existing buildings, some of which have a construction year considerably younger than 1948). Then I would suggest considering dealing with Pareto and not striving for a newly built adequate target state. "Underfloor heating" is quickly said but its construction height, with consequences for stairs, parapets, and lintels, is often forgotten. The more funding programs you want to use, the more urgently I recommend obtaining a funding-specific fee(!) consultation (and not to hope that energy consultants always have enough expertise here). You have already identified two critical points with the bank and the cumulation limit; additionally, some programs have different target groups: some fit poorly with the property, others with the applicants ("wrong" income group, number of children, etc.).
Another nasty trap can be that the funding budgets of the programs can run out at different speeds, and then the amount of available funds may no longer be sufficient to fully implement the project package (but funds may not be shifted to measures of another program, and there are also those that must be realized by a certain date X. With, for example, four programs, you should in my opinion also calculate the case that one of them "falls through").

Subject: Building Energy Act Individual Measure: Many KfW loans are effectively not accessible. I had the same experience with supplementary loan 358. I specifically hired an energy consultant for the individual measure. Then there were only Volksbank or Sparkasse, which offered the supplementary loan, of course only in combination with a loan at usual conditions – which for the blue and red ones always means about half a percent above market level. All in all, it maybe ended up roughly breaking even.

My conclusion: not worth it, rather to be seen as a job creation measure (ABM) for energy consultants and thus allows politics to put "low-interest loans" on display.

If I were you, I would take the cheapest loan, no KfW stuff, and stick to the tax reduction, since you can get up to €40,000 back. Even more worthwhile were personal contributions in the areas of plumbing and electrical work.

Currently, it is apparently also the case that family-internal purchases (from the direct line) are excluded from program 308. It is stated in the funding guidelines under Förderausschlüsse "between closely related persons within the meaning of § 138 paragraph 1 number 1 to 3 Insolvency Code (for example, between spouses or life partners),"

I absolutely did not have that on my radar, nor did my energy consultant and my financing consultant.

Supposedly that will change next year. But whether there will be any funding at all is questionable.

I am also increasingly tending to forgo a renovation to KFW70EE and to implement everything through BAFA measures.

Regards