GWH Wohnungsgesellschaft has agreed a €200 million long-term loan with the European Investment Bank to build 550 new flats and refurbish around 5,000 existing homes in Germany.
About €90 million of the funding will go towards new-build projects meeting modern energy standards, while €110 million is earmarked for energy-efficiency upgrades to existing flats, the European Investment Bank (EIB) informed on Tuesday.
The refurbishment programme is intended to cut energy consumption in older buildings and help keep tenants’ heating costs steady.
Service charges are the running costs paid by tenants — including heating and other building-related costs — and can rise when energy prices increase.
Projects will focus on neighbourhoods for families on middle and lower incomes, particularly in growth regions such as the Rhine-Main area.
GWH’s chief financial officer Matthias Voss said the funding would support investment in new flats, keep service charges “as low as possible”, and help decarbonise existing buildings.
Frankfurt estate cited as an example
One example highlighted was the Henri-Dunant-Siedlung neighbourhood in Frankfurt’s Sossenheim district, where an energy-efficiency refurbishment has been under way since 2021, GWH and the EIB said.
A local heating plant has supplied the estate since autumn 2024, with most heat generated through combined heat and power using biomethane.
Combined heat and power systems produce electricity and capture the heat that would otherwise be wasted, while biomethane is a gas fuel produced from organic material.
The €200 million financing is expected to support total investment of more than €447 million.
The EIB Group has invested more than €7.2 billion in housing finance in Germany over the past decade, it added, and said it plans to double annual funding for affordable and sustainable housing across Europe to around €6 billion.
