The cabinet is scrapping an important plan from the Climate Agreement to make a special loan possible for making houses more sustainable. The “building-related financing” – whereby the loan is linked to the house and not to the occupant – turns out to be too complicated and too expensive.
Minister Kajsa Ollongren (Housing) will inform the Lower House of this. The Civil Code was intended to be changed so that banks and other lenders could give a loan linked to a home, not a person. This would make it less risky for a homeowner to invest in, for example, home insulation or a heat pump.
Because many Dutch people do not know how long they will live in their owner-occupied home, they do not dare to make major investments in sustainability and borrow money for this. With “building-related financing”, such a loan would automatically pass to the new buyer when the house is sold. He would then have to continue to pay the interest and repayment.
Interest too high
“Intensive consultations with lenders have shown that commercial lenders are not expected to be able to offer a product that is sufficiently attractive compared to existing financing options for sustainability,” writes Ollongren. European and national rules also prevent the introduction of a loan that is not directly linked to a person.
If banks and other lenders were to offer the loan anyway, the interest would probably be considerably higher than with a normal mortgage. That is why it makes no sense to continue the plan in this way, says Ollongren.
Heat fund
It is a new setback for the cabinet in the implementation of the climate plans. Last month, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) already warned that it is too expensive for most homeowners to make their homes energy neutral. “Building-related financing comes at a higher interest rate than a mortgage, because there is no collateral for the lender,” said PBL researcher Frans Schilder at the time.
Ollongren is now setting her sights on the National Heat Fund. That government fund offers long-term loans at low interest rates for homeowners who want to green their homes. “I asked the National Heat Fund to consider whether and under what conditions they can develop and offer building-related financing,” said the minister.
