Well....to lay this developing story in Germany....there is this state-operated developmental organization called KfW (Kreditanstalt Für Wiederaufbau or the German Development Bank). It's been around since the end of WW II and supposed to operate as a investment 'tool' for the federal government.
My description goes this way.....if the government prioritized things to have one-hundred bridges built.....they'd arrange money in a KfW account to loan out to towns or states at a heavily-discounted rate....to entice you to build the bridges.
Focus laid out a decent explanation and I'd recommend a read of their article. But to summarize this....in the past couple of years, the Merkel coalition had this strategy to promote climate protection.
They basically said....all these news homes being built...ought to be built with a lot of conditions to save on heat usage (meaning extra cost). So the carrot here on the stick....if you bought this energy-sufficient house to be built....you could get this nifty loan via KfW (reduced rate).
So the new government (SPD-Green-FDP) walked in and took their offices in January....basically to discover that the KfW deal was so popular.....that the tool was running out of funds.
The Economics/Climate Protection Minister (Habeck, Green Party) stood up last week and said 'halt'.....no more loans via KfW, because the money isn't there. An immediate halt? OH YEAH....there was zero warning about this. Some folks were at the tail end of preparing the paperwork, and this has taken a major 'hit' with those folks.
The accusation? A ton of applications occurred in January, which the government apparently didn't expect. Personally, I don't buy this story as it is currently told.
The push to put energy priorities into new housing projects? Well...I would say that you can forget about this trend for 2022. People will sort through the mess....delete the various extra cost items, and go for a regular house, with normal conditions.
Screwing the Green Party plan? It would make me wonder if the CDU had this situation brewing in mid-2021, and figured to leave the mess for the new government to clean up. As for Habeck's handling of this? It'll be discussed for a week or two....as a minor embarrassment.
No comments:
Post a Comment