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Press Release from 2016-01-20 / Group

KfW continues to support the federal states and municipalities in socially integrating refugees

  • Final increase to the extraordinary promotion for creating refugee accommodation – up to a total of EUR 1.5 billion by means of interest-free loans for municipalities
  • Around 550 loan commitments with a total volume of EUR 1,045 million have been made up to now
  • In cooperation with the federal states’ promotional institutions, KfW plans to extend its commitment in the social housing sector to up to EUR 2 billion

KfW will continue to support the efforts made by the German Federal Government to help the German federal states and the municipalities to create initial accommodation and permanent housing for refugees and to foster their social integration. To this end, KfW is – for the last time – increasing its extraordinary promotion for creating refugee accommodation, which started in September 2015, by EUR 500 million to a total of EUR 1.5 billion through providing municipalities with interest-free loans. KfW increased its extraordinary promotion several times due to high demand and, once the available funds had been exhausted at the end of 2015, it did not initially accept any further loan applications. This final increase to the programme means that all the loan applications already submitted to KfW, which amount to around EUR 200 million in total, can now be processed. A limited number of new applications can also be accepted.

The total volume of EUR 1.5 billion issued from the extraordinary promotion can be used to create initial accommodation for up to 150,000 people. On 31 December 2015, KfW made around 550 loan commitments to the tune of EUR 1,045 million in total (EUR 945 million of which is being issued to municipalities and EUR 100 million of which takes the form of global loans issued to the federal states’ promotional institutions). The promotion is benefiting municipalities from all the federal states. Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony are the regional priority areas. The municipalities are mainly investing in the acquisition, rehabilitation and conversion of empty buildings and in the purchase of accommodation containers.

To help cover the sharply rising demand for permanent housing as a whole, KfW is also providing federal states and municipalities with support to create affordable housing. In coordination with the German Federal Government, KfW is – for this purpose – providing up to EUR 2.0 billion for the social housing sector. With the help of funds from the German Federal Government’s CO2 Building Modernisation programme, KfW will provide the federal states’ promotional institutions with low-interest global loans to fund state programmes aimed at promoting social housing. The new housing created in this way should help to avoid creating a competitive environment between refugees and those individuals looking for offers from the social housing sector.

During a joint press conference held today with Peter Altmaier, Head of the Federal Chancellery, Dr Ingrid Hengster, member of the KfW Executive Board, said the following: “With its interest-free extraordinary promotion for creating refugee accommodation, KfW has quickly and flexibly helped municipalities to find the funds to create more initial accommodation. Our task now is to support refugee integration and strengthen social cohesion. Creating affordable housing together with the federal states’ promotional institutions is vital to achieve this.”

Further information and details can be found at www.kfw.de/flüchtlingshilfe.

Contact

Portrait Wolfram Schweickhardt