Banks have approved 2,500 applications under the \u201cHome Upgrading\u201d subsidy program, out of approximately 3,500 submitted since the platform launched on February 12.<\/p>\n
The program offers interest-free loans ranging from \u20ac5,000 to \u20ac25,000 to finance energy upgrades in residential properties. It is open to all types of homes, regardless of whether they are primary residences. The average approved loan so far stands at around \u20ac20,000.<\/p>\n
With a total budget of \u20ac400 million, the program will remain open until the end of the year, or earlier if funds \u2013 75% of which come from the Recovery and Resilience Fund \u2013 are exhausted. Loan repayment terms range from three to seven years.<\/p>\n
A key advantage of the program is the absence of income or property ownership criteria, allowing broad access to financing for energy-efficiency improvements without major restrictions.<\/p>\n
However, the number of applications submitted so far is considered lower than expected. According to banks, this is due in part to competition from the more popular \u201cI Save\u201d (Exoikonomo) program, which covers 50% of expenses \u2013 and in some cases up to 95% \u2013 making it more financially attractive.<\/p>\n
Unlike \u201cI Save,\u201d which requires properties to improve by at least three energy classes, \u201cHome Upgrading\u201d has no such condition, making it easier to access. Still, a key reason for the program\u2019s slower uptake is believed to be the shortage of skilled labor in the construction sector. Moreover, since energy upgrade costs must be invoiced \u2013 a requirement not always met in a market where many services are still provided informally \u2013 this further limits participation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Banks have approved 2,500 applications under the \u201cHome Upgrading\u201d subsidy program, out of approximately 3,500 submitted since the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,474,2516,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-50259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-property","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114400450690518656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}