How is the energy grant amount calculated?

9/21/2026

What is the energy grant?

The energy grant is based on the Finnish Government decree on energy grants for residential buildings in 2026–2027 and its justification memo. Both documents can be downloaded from Varke's energy grant page, in Finnish. The decree was issued on 10 September 2026 and is in force from 28 September 2026. Varke, the Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland, accepts applications from 28 September 2026. The funding is 110 million euros for 2026–2027. Grants are awarded as long as the appropriation lasts, and applications are processed in order of arrival.

The grant is awarded for a renovation project that improves a residential building's energy efficiency. It is not a per-measure subsidy but a sum calculated for the whole project, and its amount depends on the number of apartments, the project's costs and the E-number improvement.

Who can apply?

The applicant is a corporation that owns a residential building: a housing company or a housing cooperative, or a corporation that owns state-subsidised rental or right-of-occupancy housing whose use and transfer restrictions remain in force for at least five more years. A private person, for example the owner of a detached house, cannot apply, and neither can other companies, such as landlords of market-rate rental housing. A detached house therefore receives the grant only when a housing company owns it, for example a housing company made up of several small houses.

A housing company that carries on economic activity, or more than half of whose shares are held by a corporation that does, is not eligible. The building must not have received another public energy grant earlier, for example the 2020–2023 energy grant. At least half of the building's floor area must be in year-round residential use.

Which E-number improvement is required?

The post-renovation E-number may be at most a coefficient times the building's original E-number. The coefficient is 0.77 for an apartment block, so the improvement must be at least 23 percent, and 0.72 for a detached, linked or terraced house, so at least 28 percent. A housing company made up of several small houses is judged by the small-house requirement, and in a company with both apartment blocks and small houses each building by its own type. The coefficient is the minimum requirement for renovation under the Ministry of the Environment decree 4/13, 0.85 for an apartment block and 0.80 for a small house, tightened by 10 percent. In addition, the measures must improve the E-number from the building's current state: a building renovated earlier may already sit under the threshold, but a package that does not lower its E-number is not eligible.

The reference level is the building's original E-number, the E-number as the building was built. The reference level is calculated easily with Apex Heat App. If the building's use has changed, the reference is calculated at the level of the year of the change.

Which costs are eligible?

The eligible costs count a share of each measure's VAT-inclusive cost, per the table in Varke's application guide (section 3.4). The grant is awarded as follows:

• Design, E-number calculations and the energy performance certificate: 100%.
• Abandoning oil or gas heating, including the related modifications: 100%. A hybrid solution that keeps the oil or gas boiler in use is not abandonment.
• Ventilation heat recovery, including an exhaust-air heat pump: 50%.
• Windows and external doors: 40%, when the new window's U-value is at most 0.70 W/m²K, that is at least 30 percent better than the decree 4/13 requirement.
• Solar energy: 40%.
• The building's heat-pump and heat-recovery systems with the necessary cabling and piping, other than those under section 7(4) of the decree: 40%. For example a per-apartment air-to-air heat pump.
• Added facade and roof insulation: 20%, when the insulation reaches the decree 4/13 level, that is half the current U-value and at most 0.17 W/m²K for a wall and 0.09 W/m²K for a roof.
• Added floor insulation, cooling, and pressure reduction and water fixtures: 20%.
• Equipment acquired under a leasing or service model: 0%, unless ownership passes to the applicant by the time payment is claimed.

How is the grant amount calculated?

The grant is the smaller of the following: 4,000 euros times the number of apartments, or 50 percent of the eligible costs. Only the apartments in buildings that receive eligible measures are counted.

Example: a 40-apartment block abandons oil heating for a ground-source heat pump at 300,000 euros, replaces its windows for 200,000 euros and spends 10,000 euros on design. The eligible costs are 300,000 + 0.4 × 200,000 + 10,000 = 390,000 euros, of which 50 percent is 195,000 euros. The per-apartment cap is 40 × 4,000 = 160,000 euros, so the grant is 160,000 euros and the per-apartment cap binds. If the same project were carried out in a 60-apartment building, the per-apartment cap would be 240,000 euros and the grant 195,000 euros; the cost cap would then bind and additional measures would raise the grant.

The binding cap is the most useful fact for the applicant: when the per-apartment cap binds, adding eligible cost does not raise the grant, and when the cost cap binds, every eligible euro raises it by half a euro.

How does Apex Heat App calculate the grant?

Apex Heat App calculates the grant for the planned set of measures for the building. The calculation is made per building: an apartment block is held to the apartment-block requirement and a small house to the small-house requirement, and the per-apartment cap counts only the apartments of the buildings the package reaches. The original E-number is determined on the basis of the building regulations of the construction period, and the user can easily adjust how the reference figure is determined, for example by replacing the estimate with their own calculation or stating the building's original ventilation and heating method.

Every cost item is assigned to its cost category, and the U-value conditions for added insulation and windows are checked from the U-value potentials on the form. A row whose condition is not met, or whose share is zero, is shown with its cost and the reason, so the consultant sees why the eligible total is what it is. The output is the eligibility with its grounds, the eligible costs by category, the grant amount and the binding cap, plus a PDF calculation as an attachment to the application.

The grant is awarded by Varke.

What is the application timeline?

Design costs are accepted from 20 April 2026. A project already under way qualifies if the tenders were accepted or the contract signed and the works started on 1 June 2026 or later, and the application with its attachments is filed by 31 December 2026. For applications filed in 2027, works may not start before the application is filed.

The application includes a statement of the measures signed by a professional, E-number calculations before and after the renovation, and a cost estimate. For payment, the applicant submits calculations of the realised situation, a statement of the realised costs, the as-built plans and an official energy performance certificate prepared after the renovation. The grant is paid in one instalment once the project is complete, and payment must be claimed by the end of October of the second calendar year after the year of the decision. Read how an energy performance certificate is produced with Apex Heat App.