OREANDA-NEWS. The Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS), the KfW Group, the Kreissparkasse Munchen Starnberg Ebersberg savings bank and BayernLB today celebrated the three millionth home subsidised since the government’s CO2 Building Rehabilitation Programme was initiated in 2006. The symbolic award was accepted by the owner of a one-family house in Vaterstetten, which was modernised with promotional funds from the KfW programmes Energy-efficient Refurbishment and Senior-friendly Conversion to KfW Efficiency House 85 standard.

Federal Building Minister Dr. Peter Ramsauer, Dr Ulrich Schroder, Chief Executive Officer of the KfW Group, Andreas Fruhschutz, Director of the Kreissparkasse Munchen Starnberg Ebersberg savings bank and Christian Lindner, Head of the Development Department at BayernLB presented the award.

Federal Building Minister Dr Peter Ramsauer said: “With the promotional funds from the CO2 Building Rehabilitation Programme we are supporting measures to save energy and to protect the climate in the building sector. It is very pleasing that the tenants or owners of three million homes are saving considerable energy costs as a result of the subsidy schemes. I congratulate the owners of the buildings on their new homes and hope that plenty of others will copy them with these leading-edge investments.”

“The KfW assists owners who, with the future in mind, want to improve the energy performance of their building, therefore making a contribution to protecting the climate whilst, at the same time, reducing their energy costs. The one-family house getting this award is a model of how energy modernisation and the elimination of barriers can be combined,” said Dr Ulrich Schroder, Chief Executive Officer of the KfW Group.

“We support our customers with finance for sophisticated and complex residential housing construction and modernisation. Our building finance specialists always examine the projects to ensure that they meet the subsidy criteria. In 2012 the Kreissparkasse lent approximately one hundred million euros to private and commercial customers in the form of promotional loans. A large majority were for promotional programmes in the area of renewable energy,” said Andreas Fruhschutz, Director of the Kreissparkasse Munchen Starnberg Ebersberg savings bank.

Apart from insulating the shell of the building, other renewals of the property receiving the award include the windows, the entry door and the heating system. The access ways to the building and the sanitary facilities were also modernised, taking accessibility aspects into account.

BayernLB, as a partner of the Bavarian Savings Banks in the development business, has also been involved in the financing of rehabilitation measures. As the intermediary Central Bank for Savings Banks, it has passed on the KfW’s promotional funds to the Kreissparkasse Munchen Starnberg Ebersberg savings bank. In the first six months of 2013 alone, BayernLB was involved in nearly ten thousand financial transactions in which the savings bank’s customers benefited from the KfW schemes.

Since 2006, KfW has provided more than EUR 50 billion in loans and subsidies within the context of various programmes to promote energy-related modernisation and energy-efficient new buildings. To date, three million homes have been modernised in order to reduce their energy consumption or built to be energy efficient.