OREANDA-NEWS. July 25, 2012. Starting 1 September 2012 the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS) and KfW are jointly improving the promotional offers for the energy-efficient refurbishment of buildings in municipal and social infrastructure (schools, kindergartens, town halls, nursing and disabled care facilities, hospitals etc):

The new promotional programme "Energy Efficient Refurbishment - Municipal Enterprises" (programme no 219) will for the first time also support municipal enterprises in the energy-efficient refurbishment of buildings. In the framework of this programme, projects as part of public-private partnerships will also be financed.

In addition to the interest rate reduction, in the future municipalities, municipal enterprises and social enterprises will also receive repayment bonuses for refurbishments into a KfW Efficiency House (for municipalities: programme no 218, municipal enterprises: 219, social organisations: 157). The basic principle: the more ambitious the aspired energy efficiency level, the higher the repayment bonus. The level of the bonuses ranges between 2.5% and 12.5% of the committed loan amount. For building refurbishments with particularly high energy-efficiency goals, new promotional levels of 70 and 55 will be introduced for the KfW Efficiency Houses.

The particular requirements for monumental buildings and other buildings worthy of preservation are taken into greater account through the new promotional component KfW Efficiency House - Monument (in all three programmes).

Dr Peter Ramsauer, Federal Minister: "The refurbishment of the building stock is one of the most important tasks of the energy turnaround. The 300,000 buildings in municipal and social infrastructure hold great potential for energy savings and climate protection. Our new and improved programmes will significantly help the energy-efficient refurbishment of buildings in municipal and social infrastructure, including for financially weak municipalities. Municipalities benefit directly from lowering energy costs in their buildings. At the same time they fulfil their role as a model to their citizens."

Dr Axel Nawrath, member of KfW's Executive Board:

"The improvements to the promotional programmes for energy-efficient refurbishment of buildings in municipal and social infrastructure, in particular for the first time granting repayment bonuses to municipalities, municipal enterprises and social organisations for refurbishment into a KfW Efficiency House, fit seamlessly into our overall strategy of intensively supporting these applicants in tackling the energy turnaround."

Since 2007 KfW has been supporting energy-efficient refurbishment of these buildings with low-interest loans; the interest rates are reduced by the BMVBS and are therefore considerably lower than the market level. Currently municipalities attain loans with interest rates starting at 0.1 % p.a. and social organisations starting at 1.0 % p.a.