In the past year, the sharp rise in mortgage interest rates has given a financial product a new lease of life: the home loan and savings contract. Many institutes reported records, for example with new contracts.
According to industry information, the private building societies concluded contracts with a volume of more than 38 billion euros from January to June. That is an increase of over 10 percent compared to the first half of 2022, as the Association of Private Building Societies announced today.
After last year’s boom, the demand for home savings contracts is still high. “Bausparen is also very trendy in 2023,” said the association’s chairman, Bernd Hertweck, of the German Press Agency.
Hertweck is also CEO of Wüstenrot Bausparkasse from Kornwestheim in Swabia. Apart from the increased construction interest, he believes that the development is also being driven by the discussion about the heat transition and the heating law. “Anyone who owns their own home does not yet know exactly what to expect. But they know that they are well advised to take financial precautions,” he said.
Politics should support the will to save
The home savings contract becomes an energy savings contract – for investments in savings measures that are due in the near or distant future. Politicians would be well advised to support this willingness to save and to strengthen people’s ability to save in Germany, he said.
The Landesbausparkassen (LBS) have not yet received any half-year figures. In the first few months of this year, however, a positive development in new business was still registered, said a spokeswoman. The Landesbausparkassen account for around a third of the German market, with the private institutes sharing the rest.
New home loan business had already picked up significantly last year. The main reason for this was the rise in construction interest rates. In 2022, the private building societies had recorded an increase of 47 percent in the newly concluded building society savings. The number of new contracts rose by 15 percent. The Landesbausparkassen had also significantly increased the sum and number of building savings.
Source: Stern
