Two thirds of homeowners do not want to renovate
The months-long dispute over the Heating Act has not done German homeowners' willingness to renovate any good. Data from an agency of the Habeck Ministry shows a drastic slump in heat pump subsidies. Two thirds of homeowners no longer want to renovate their homes to make them more energy efficient.
Germany's homeowners are showing little enthusiasm for renovating their houses and apartments to make them more energy efficient. According to the Funke newspapers, the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (Bafa) is currently registering hardly any applications for subsidies for a new heat pump. The authority, which reports to Robert Habeck's Federal Ministry of Economics, counted 6801 applications this October. A total of 76,471 applications for subsidies for heat pumps were submitted between January and October of this year. In the previous year, homeowners submitted a total of 315,835 applications in the same period, according to the report. That is more than four times as many.
Sales of external wall insulation systems also plummeted accordingly. According to the Association for Insulation Systems, Plaster and Mortar (VDPM), demand in the third quarter of 2023 fell by almost a quarter (just under 23%) compared to the same period last year. A negative trend that had already been apparent throughout the year: In the first quarter of this year, sales had slumped by a good 17 percent compared to the same period last year, and by 13.5 percent in the second quarter. In absolute figures, this means that just under 36 million square meters of building surface were insulated with external thermal insulation composite systems last year. According to the association's calculations, only a good 29 million square meters will have been newly insulated this year. In view of the continuing negative development, the association therefore does not expect the trend to reverse next year.
Survey: One third reject refurbishment outright
A YouGov survey, which is available to the Funke newspapers, also shows great disillusionment with refurbishment: According to the survey, two thirds of Germans (66 percent) do not want to renovate their houses and apartments to make them more energy efficient. In relation to all homeowners in the country, that is 16.1 million people. Among the reasons given, 32 percent of those surveyed stated that they outright refused to upgrade the energy efficiency of their home; 34 percent stated that they were not in a position to bear the financial costs of the refurbishment. Only 20 percent of those surveyed wanted to carry out energy-efficient refurbishment and felt financially able to do so.
23 percent of respondents also stated that they would be prepared to move out of their own four walls and sell them in order to avoid having to carry out energy-efficient refurbishment. If property owners did decide to carry out energy-efficient refurbishment measures, 35% of respondents would replace the heating, 30% would replace the windows, 27% would insulate the roof or façade, and 17% would insulate the basement ceiling and 16% would insulate the suspended ceilings. Multiple answers were possible.
The representative survey by YouGov was conducted on behalf of the Gesellschaft für Nachhaltige Immobilienwirtschaft (GNIW), for which 1001 homeowners in Germany were surveyed online.
Despite the ongoing dispute over the Heating Law, Robert Habeck's Federal Ministry of Economics is seeing a decline in heat pump subsidy applications. The data reveals that two-thirds of homeowners are no longer interested in renovating their homes to improve energy efficiency.
The dispute over the Heating Act and the subsequent decrease in heat pump subsidies seem to be contributing to a decline in homeowners' willingness to invest in energy-efficient renovations, as suggested by the survey data.
Source: www.ntv.de
