Climate-friendly non-residential new-build loan (299)
An interest-subsidised loan for companies, nonprofits and other investors building or buying a new energy-efficient non-residential building in Germany.
Finance construction or a first purchase, including eligible planning and construction supervision. Programme 299 can cover up to 100% of eligible costs, but both a floor-area limit and a total project limit apply. Recoverable VAT is excluded, and the amount cannot be increased beyond what you applied for.
The three funding tiers use energy-performance standards checked by an energy-efficiency expert:
- Effizienzgebäude 55 (EG55): up to €1,000 per m² of net floor area, capped at €5 million per project. The building must meet the EG55 standard; no lifecycle emissions assessment or sustainability certificate is required.
- Climate-friendly EG40: up to €1,500 per m², capped at €7.5 million. EG40 checks calculated energy demand against a reference building and sets limits on heat loss. The building must also meet the programme's emissions limit across its lifecycle, assessed from construction through use and eventual disposal.
- EG40 with QNG: up to €2,000 per m², capped at €10 million. In addition to the EG40 and lifecycle requirements, an accredited body must certify that the building meets the QNG-PLUS or QNG-PREMIUM sustainability requirements. A sustainability adviser and the certification can also be financed.
You repay the loan with interest. Terms range from four to 30 years, with interest fixed for up to ten years. Depending on the term, you can initially pay only interest for up to five years; afterwards, principal is repaid in equal quarterly instalments. Your bank sets the individual interest rate using your financial position and the assets pledged as security. A later interest-rate renewal has no federal interest subsidy. Early repayment is allowed only for the entire outstanding loan and incurs a fee; partial early repayments are excluded.
Eligibility
- Individuals, sole traders, freelancers, companies including municipal companies, nonprofits including churches, public-law bodies and other private-law legal entities can apply. Entities majority-owned by a German state qualify only when the project performs municipal tasks. The lending bank receiving KfW refinancing may hold no more than 25% of the applicant company, directly or indirectly, throughout the loan term.
- The federal government, German states and their institutions, federally majority-owned entities and political parties are excluded. Applicants with insolvency proceedings requested or opened, or who have made or must make the specified sworn asset declaration or disclosure under §807/§802c ZPO or §284 AO, are excluded. Municipal territorial authorities, their legally dependent enterprises and equivalent municipal associations use programme 499 instead.
- The building must be in Germany and fall under the German Building Energy Act (GEG). A first purchase must take place within 12 months of formal building acceptance. A purchase split into land and construction contracts is excluded where a single contract could have been used and the German developer-contract regulation would apply.
- EG55 requires a valid building permit at application, or an exempt project already notified to the authority and legally ready to begin. Fossil-fuel heat generators are excluded. For EG40, in-building heating and cooling generators using fossil fuels or biomass, including hybrid systems, are excluded. The EG40 technical rules allow exceptions for heat supplied through networks: a Gebäudenetz, a network supplying heat exclusively to no more than 16 buildings and no more than 100 residential units, may use these fuels for up to 30% of annual heat output if they supply at least one building constructed before 1995 or whose building application predates 1 January 1995; other heat networks are not subject to this fuel exclusion.
- Keep the building in its intended use for at least ten years. Tell a buyer about the funding, continued-use duty and prohibition on worsening energy performance. Changes of use, abandonment or demolition during that period must be reported promptly and can trigger partial recovery of support.
- Land purchases, refinancing completed projects and repeated KFN support for the same building are excluded. The related-party transfer exclusions cover connected companies, company/shareholder and associated-person transfers, business splits, transfers between legally defined close persons, acquisition of own shares and arrangements that circumvent these rules.
- Do not combine this loan for the same measure with the federal efficient-buildings programme, Bundesförderung für effiziente Gebäude (BEG), or with Klimafreundlicher Neubau im Niedrigpreissegment – Nichtwohngebäude (KNN), the programme for climate-friendly non-residential new buildings in the low-price segment. For the same costs, support under the NKI cooling/air-conditioning rules, KWKG, EEG or BEW is also excluded. These are the separate German schemes for cooling, combined heat and power, renewable energy and efficient heat networks. Other combinations must not exceed eligible costs in total.
How to apply
- Status
- closes 31 Dec 2026
- Closes
- Round restrictions
- EG55 only: applications must reach KfW no later than 31 December 2026. May end earlier if funds are exhausted.
Appoint an independent energy-efficiency expert listed for the federal non-residential building programmes. The expert checks the planned standard and prepares the gewerbliche Bestätigung zum Antrag (gBzA), the technical confirmation you sign for the loan application. The QNG tier also requires a sustainability adviser and certification body. Take the signed confirmation to a bank or savings bank, which applies to KfW for you.
The application must reach KfW, not just your bank, before you sign a construction supply/service contract or a purchase/developer contract. Planning and advice may happen earlier. If signing earlier, the contract must contain a condition making it dependent on funding approval; the application must still reach KfW before on-site works or the first purchase payment, including a deposit. Use the contractual wording provided on the official product page.
EG55 has an additional route for construction supply/service contracts: a funding consultation with the bank or financial intermediary before signing can preserve eligibility. Record it on Nachweis eines Beratungsgesprächs, form 6000004806; your financing partner supplies this evidence document. The application must reach KfW before on-site work. This exception does not cover purchase or developer contracts. For an EG55 first purchase, the purchase contract and on-site construction must be no earlier than 16 December 2025; no purchase payment may precede KfW's receipt of the application. EG55 applications must reach KfW by 31 December 2026 at the latest. All tiers depend on available funds and there is no entitlement to support.
For loans of €700,000 or more, award work competitively to capable suppliers on economical terms, obtain at least three offers where possible, and retain the decision records. After completion, submit the expert's gewerbliche Bestätigung nach Durchführung (gBnD), confirming eligible costs and completed work, through your bank promptly and no later than 36 months after full loan disbursement. Keep the required project documents and payment evidence for ten years after loan approval.