Knowledge · Buying
A poorly insulated house has a buyer group of its own.
Precisely the houses that feel heaviest after a death — built in the sixties, yesterday’s heating, energy class F or worse — are the ones for which the federal government runs a programme of its own. "Jung kauft Alt" is the common name; at the KfW it carries the number 308.
The answer first. The KfW grants a reduced-interest loan to families with at least one minor child who buy an existing home in energy efficiency class F, G or H and move into it themselves. Taxable household income may not exceed 90,000 euros with one child, plus 10,000 euros for each further child. Since 3 August 2026 the maximum amounts have been 140,000 euros (one child), 160,000 (two) and 180,000 (three or more). In return the buyers undertake to renovate the house to a better energy standard within 54 months. As at: 12 October 2026 — the conditions change; these very amounts rose by about 40 per cent in August 2026.
Why this concerns a selling family
The commonest sentence after a death is: "the house just isn’t up to date any more." It is often true — and it misleads all the same, because it carries its own conclusion along with it: so it is cheap, so it must go quickly, so it goes to the first person who reaches for it.
The programme says something else. It funds the poor classes expressly: F, G, H. A house in energy class B is excluded from this funding; one from 1965 with an old boiler is not. For one particular group of buyers — young families with a child and a middling income — your unrenovated family home is therefore not the residual risk but the way into a loan they would not get for a renovated house.
No higher price follows from that, and we do not claim one. Something more sober follows: the circle of people for whom this house comes into question is larger than the first impression suggests. Anyone who knows that negotiates differently from someone who believes they should be grateful.
The obligation that comes with it
The loan is not a gift, and the condition attached to it is not a formality: the buyers undertake to renovate the house to a better energy standard within 54 months of the funding commitment. Since August 2026 that may also be done through several single measures rather than through one renovation to an efficiency-house standard in a single run — for many families the decisive difference, because roof, windows and heating can then be spread over years.
What that means for you as a seller: a buyer financing through this programme needs the energy certificate not at some point but when they apply — that is, before the purchase. Anyone who obtains it only on request delays not the appointment but the other party’s financing. Who issues it, and what else the GModG requires, is set out on Funding, renovation and the GModG.
What it means for you as a buyer: count the renovation in from the start, not as "some day". Fifty-four months sound long and are not, once tradespeople have waiting times. And the funding covers the purchase, not the renovation — there are separate routes for that, and an energy-efficiency expert plans them, not we.
The order decides — and it concerns both sides
This is where funding is most often lost, and it has nothing to do with money but with a date. The KfW leaflet puts it plainly: the application must be made before the notarial contract of sale is concluded, and concluding that contract counts as starting the project. Anyone who signs first and applies afterwards gets nothing — the leaflet's word for it is "förderschädlich", harmful to the funding.
There is a way through, and it stands there too: a contract of sale concluded subject to the condition precedent of the funding commitment does not count as an early start. That is not a turn of phrase to be settled in passing at the notary's, but a drafting decision to be discussed beforehand — by a lawyer or the notary, not by us.
For a selling family that means something very practical: do not push such a buyer towards a quick appointment. A notarial date brought forward by two weeks can cost them six-figure funding terms — and then cost you the buyer.
What we do not do here
We do not broker loans and we do not advise on financing. A loan like this one — a family buying its own home — is a consumer real-estate loan; brokering it requires the permission under section 34i GewO. We do not hold it, and we do not pretend it is unnecessary. Anyone who wants to know whether they meet the conditions, and what the loan costs in their case, asks their bank or the KfW directly — the application runs through a credit institution in any event, not through the KfW itself.
What we do: we name the programme where a house falls into the funded classes, and we see to it that the documents are ready early enough for a buyer to be able to apply at all. It is no more than that, and it would be no more than that with a permission either.
All details follow the two KfW pages linked below, retrieved on 12 October 2026. Funding conditions change; check today’s position before deciding. Our own next check of this page is due in January 2027.
Frequently asked questions
- Does this also apply to a flat?
- The programme funds the acquisition of owner-occupied existing residential property — house or flat alike. What matters is energy efficiency class F, G or H, a minor child in the household, the income limit and the renovation obligation.
- Three of us inherit and nobody moves in — is this any use to us?
- Not for you yourselves: the funding goes to whoever moves in. It can still count for the sale, because it tells you which buyers come into question for this house at all — and that the poor energy class is no bar for that group.
- Will the amounts change again?
- Very probably. On 3 August 2026 they rose by about 40 per cent, and the interest subsidy depends on federal funds. That is why this page carries a date and a reference to the source rather than a figure meant to hold forever.
Read on
Buying through Wahrgut
Who we work for, how a purchase runs — and what you may expect nonetheless.
View →The costs on top of the price
What comes on top of the price — and why banks rarely finance it.
View →Funding, renovation and the GModG
The energy certificate, renovation duties and who plans the funding applications.
View →