Who benefits from the “Young Buys Old” funding program

„Jung kauft Alt“ nennt Bauministerin Klara Geywitz ihr neues Förderprogramm und meint damit nicht, dass irgendwelche Großeltern verkauft werden sollen – es geht um alte Häuser. Statt neu zu bauen, sollen Familien alte Häuser kaufen und sanieren. Dafür bekommen sie einen verbilligten Kredit von der staatlichen Förderbank KfW. Das soll umweltfreundlich sein, Familien raus aufs Land bringen, wo es alte Häuser gibt – und es soll auch noch Familien helfen, in die eigene Immobilie zu kommen. Bleibt nur die Frage: Lohnt sich das? Und die Antwort ist recht deutlich: Dieses Förderprogramm ist nicht für jeden eine gute Entscheidung.

Klar ist: Nicht jeder bekommt die Förderung. Die günstigen Hypotheken kommen nur für Leute infrage, die noch keine Immobilie in Deutschland haben, die in ihren Kauf auch einziehen wollen und bei denen mindestens ein Kind unter 18 Jahren im Haushalt wohnt. Es gelten Einkommensobergrenzen: 90.000 Euro zu versteuerndes Einkommen im Haushalt für Familien mit einem Kind, für jedes weitere Kind kommen 10.000 Euro dazu.

Wer da an der Einkommensschwelle liegt, kann das tatsächliche Bruttogehalt noch mal rund 10.000 Euro höher ansetzen, so groß kann die Differenz zwischen dem landläufig genannten Bruttoeinkommen und dem „zu versteuernden Einkommen“ schon werden. Als Nachweis gilt nur der Einkommensteuerbescheid.

The good thing is that the funding program can be combined with other KfW loans. After the payment, there is no repayment for one to five years, depending on the term of the loan. And the term is flexible: if you only need the loan for seven years, you only pay 0.25 percent interest. The loan can also be repaid over 35 years, with the interest rate fixed for 20 years, then it costs 3.26 percent interest. If the purchase of the house is delayed, the commitment interest is relatively low at 1.8 percent per year.

But then upper limits come into play. Families with one child can get a maximum of 100,000 euros in credit, families with three or more children can get a maximum of 150,000 euros. How much does that really save? The FAS has done the math.

For example, a family with one child who takes out a loan over 20 years and also sets the interest rate for 20 years will receive an interest rate of 2.82 percent from KfW. Cheap banks charge around 3.4 percent, depending on the equity capital. Over the 20 years, the family will then save around 8,100 euros. If the family has three children, they will receive a larger subsidized loan and save a total of 12,100 euros.

Shorter fixed interest rates are more lucrative at KfW, because the development bank charges significantly lower interest rates. Most banks do not currently do this.

If the family with one child only sets the interest rate for ten years, then in the best case scenario they will pay 0.25 percent interest. In return they can pay off the loan more quickly – and in this way they save a total of more than 26,000 euros over the ten years compared to private banks. You can buy something nice with that.

But the house the family is allowed to buy is prescribed. In return for the discounted loan, they have to renovate the property, turn it into an “Efficiency House 70” and prove this within four and a half years. That is not cheap. The costs start with the energy consultant that the borrowers have to use and increase with each insulation panel and each window that is replaced. Depending on the house, amounts in the mid-five-figure range can be due. And then there is the bureaucracy of proof at various points in the construction process, which is not always fun.

So the bottom line is clear: unrenovated houses are currently much cheaper than new ones. If you want to buy such a house because it doesn’t cost that much and want to renovate it afterwards anyway, the new subsidized loan is suitable for you. However, the conditions are not cheap enough to buy an old house just for that reason – especially since the people who have to spread their repayments over many years and need security for that are the ones who benefit the least from it.