Wait with the building application because of the child construction allowance

The election program also mentioned the deadline of 1.7.2017. I also find it inappropriate now that nothing more can be read about it.

We are building with a building notification and were allowed to start construction from 31.12.2017 - a public holiday. Effectively, we could only have started on 2.1.2018, with a one-week lead time in which the construction project must be registered.
Do you think the 31.12.2017 still counts then?

But we are probably out anyway, since 10 years ago, when we had three fewer children, we already acquired residential property.

Or do you interpret it as the date of the construction start notification? For us, that would be 26.2.2018. But even here: no one really knows yet.

Did you already have a child when you bought it 10 years ago? If yes, you are probably out. If no: unclear in my eyes. However, December 31st is not a holiday, it is just treated like one by many. Or was that a Sunday?

What is a Bauanzeige? Do you mean the building permit in the Freistellungsverfahren? If yes, then

.... No building permit is required, the entitlement to Baukindergeld applies to new construction projects of which the municipality has become aware according to the building regulations and whose execution was allowed to begin after January 1, 2018....

So December 31, 2017 would be your cut-off date. Theoretically, you could have started building then. Holiday or not... the date will count.

You will only know for sure when you receive the approval from the KfW after submitting your documents.

It was a Sunday.

Yes, we already had two children. So we were basically out. I think so too.

The whole thing is such a farce...

Of course, I am happy for those who now receive it (despite having already bought/built anyway) and also for those who can now afford it because of it.

But: The whole thing is lobbying, because those who earn close to 75,000 EUR or 90,000 EUR or 105,000 EUR could have afforded to build a house even without the Baukindergeld.

And those who could not afford it before still cannot afford it now with the money. The money is already spent before the first groundbreaking is done.

Conclusion: It only serves the good middle-class incomes to continue being able to buy/lease a new car every third year, whereas otherwise they might have had to drive the car for 14 instead of 4 years.

A real help would have been to increase child benefits in general and to reduce or even abolish the fees for daycares. Then families would finally have the money in their pockets that is needed for building a house, without any earmarked cross-subsidization.