The sun’s out so it’s time for solar panels and other means of increasing the sustainability of your property! Sustainability is good for the environment and your wallet. By using a mortgage when investing in sustainability, you can reduce your monthly charges straight away without spending any of your savings. This could save you up to hundreds of euros each year! Let us explain how this works.

Where to start?

Ensuring your property is more energy efficient will require a financial investment, but will also lead to financial return and is beneficial for the environment. People often start with insulating their property before taking other energy-saving measures. You can use an energy label to check how energy efficient your property is. You apply for an energy label yourself, which will then be carried out by a professional. Your Vixxer can refer you to a local professional.

Insulation

A house loses a lot of warmth via the roof, walls, windows and floor. When insulating your property, you are ensuring the property is holding onto the warmth inside the house. This could make a big difference. You could save approximately €1,900 each year on an average detached house when insulting the property. Living in a property which is properly insulated is more comfortable, more energy efficient and you reduce the amount of CO2. This is not only good for the environment but also for you wallet.

Solar panels: bright return on investment

Besides insulation, solar panels are also an interesting investment. The return of investment could add up to 10-15% per annum. Taking the low interest rates on your savings into account, you earn more when installing solar panels compared to when you leave your money in the bank. Solar panels increase the value of your property, reduce your energy bills and you won’t be as affected by any price increases of your energy supplier.

Subsidy on solar panels

There is no longer a national subsidy when purchasing solar panels. However, the amount paid in VAT will be reimbursed. At 21%, this could add up to a considerabel amount.

Some counsils still offer subsidies. If you want to find out if your council is one of them, please check the energiewijzer van de overheid or get in touch with your local council.

How to pay for this?

Investing in energy-saving measures can become rather expensive. And let’s be honest: there are nicer ways to spend your money. Luckily there are various options within your mortgage structure for financing these measures. Thanks to the low interest rates, this can be quite interesting. Imagine having a 10% return on investment on sustaining your property. You are using your mortgage to pay for this, at 0.6% interest, thereby creating a return on investment of 9.4%. You can earn money without spending your savings. That’s an easy way to get comfortable!

Since 2018, you are allowed to borrow no more than 100% of the value of your property. It is no longer possible to borrow extra money for any additioinal costs. Except if you want to borrow additonal funds for energy-saving measures on your property. You are then allowed to borrow 106% of the value of your property. Some banks offer a specific sustainability mortgage at exceptionally low interest rates, in order to promote sustainability.

Making money straight away, without losing money at the beginning

Imagine investing €10,000 in sustaining your property at a return of investment of 11%. This investment will save you €1,100 per annum.

If this investment is paid for from a mortgage with a 240 months duration at 0.6%, you pay approximately €500 per annum. This means you save €600 on an annual basis, without spending any of your savings and your loan will be paid off when the duration of your mortgage expires.