The KfW55 level is new territory for all of us.

I once looked into the KfW statistics to determine how widespread energy-efficient building is.



In conversations with various home construction companies, architects, structural engineers, and energy consultants, I repeatedly heard that KfW55 is an enormous challenge, is rarely built, no one really knows exactly how to meet the requirements, and so on.

Since the passive house energy level has existed for many years (15-20?), and according to KfW, several thousand houses are built each year according to this standard, it is not clear to me why this is such an "unknown" topic for many involved in the industry.

Why is that?

kfw55 has changed recently. otherwise, any company that charges a bit more than the cheapest one can build kfw55. the requirements are proper, but clearly structured.

Attention - personal opinion

Many providers have not yet understood that the tightened energy saving ordinance roughly corresponds to the former KfW 70. This makes the step towards KfW 55 - depending on the architecture and location of the property - manageable. However, there are also numerous providers who have already sugar-coated KfW 70 and are now even more likely to run into trouble.

Go to a reputable provider and you will find that KfW 55, 40, 40+ or PH are no problem for them. Whether it is financially viable, of course, is another matter ;)

Building expert on the go

I can fully agree here with Bauexperte

Now that KFW 70 is practically the standard anyway, KFW 55 is not far behind. Due to the attractive conditions for KFW Programm153 with €100k and a 20-year fixed interest rate, it also became more appealing. For us, it currently looks like the additional costs are no longer that huge (a central ventilation system should be in place anyway), and because of the lower interest rates, KFW55 even ends up being cheaper.

It has also never been a problem with any company so far. They could directly tell us roughly what is needed to make KFW 55 possible, if it wasn’t almost already designed for that.

As I said, with various non-prominent construction companies and other parties in Berlin/Brandenburg, I have had completely different experiences. Maybe it is not worth it for the companies to deal with this if they only build 20-30 houses a year anyway.