| Feature | What SEAI and SBCI publish |
|---|---|
| Amount | €5,000 to €75,000 per property |
| Term | 1 to 10 years |
| Security | None. No charge on your home and no personal guarantee |
| Interest rate | Not centrally published. Set by each lender |
| Spend rule | At least 75 per cent on eligible energy upgrade works |
| Non-energy spend | Up to 25 per cent on other home improvements |
| BER condition | Projected minimum 20 per cent uplift in energy performance |
| Scheme availability | Loans available up to 31 December 2026 unless fully allocated first |
Rates are not published in one place. Ask each participating lender for the APR in writing and compare the total cost of credit, not the headline rate.
The Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme is a government backed loan delivered through ordinary banks and credit unions. The State takes part of the credit risk, which is why the rate is lower than a normal home improvement loan from the same institution.
You borrow between €5,000 and €75,000 per property over a term of one to ten years. It is unsecured, so no charge is registered against your house and no personal guarantee is required.
There is a cap of three properties and €225,000 in total per borrower, which matters if you own more than one home.
Neither SEAI nor SBCI publishes a single scheme rate. SEAI describes the rates as significantly lower than those generally available in the market but says plainly that they differ among the finance providers. SBCI says the same.
So we are not going to print an APR here, because any figure we printed would be a guess about one lender on one day. Ring the lenders and get it in writing.
The participating lenders named by SBCI are AIB, Bank of Ireland, An Post Money and PTSB, along with a number of credit unions including Clonmel, Connect, First South, Listowel, Naomh Breandan, North Midlands and Progressive. Check the current list with SBCI before you apply, because lenders join and leave.
This is the condition people miss. SEAI states that you must obtain an eligible SEAI grant for the energy upgrade works you plan to do. No grant, no loan.
SEAI's loan page also says the works must be delivered by an SEAI registered One Stop Shop or a Community Project Co-ordinator. If your plan was to hire your own builder and borrow cheaply against it, that plan does not work here.
That effectively couples this loan to the One Stop Shop route. Confirm the delivery requirement with your chosen lender before you build a budget on it, because the lender is the one who will apply the rule to your file.
At least 75 per cent of the loan, measured at the time the loan is drawn, has to be spent on eligible energy upgrade works. Up to 25 per cent can go on other home improvements.
That 25 per cent is more useful than it sounds. Retrofits generate making good work, decorating, new sills, replastering, a floor that has to come up. Being able to borrow for that at the same rate is worth having.
The home also has to be projected to achieve a minimum 20 per cent uplift on its current energy performance. Your assessment report is what demonstrates that, so it comes from the same process as the grant.
You have to be a natural person resident in Ireland. Companies do not borrow under this scheme.
The property has to be residential and in Ireland, and it cannot have been used for commercial purposes, for short term letting, or as a holiday home in the previous twelve months.
Approval is still ordinary credit approval. The State backing reduces the rate, it does not reduce the lender's assessment of whether you can repay. A weak credit record will still be declined.
Do not double count. If you go through a One Stop Shop, the grant is deducted from your invoice before you are billed, so the number you borrow is the net figure, not the gross one.
Work out the net cost first on the calculator, then size the loan to that. Borrowing the gross amount means paying interest on money that was never yours to spend.
The grant does not repay the loan. They are separate things happening in the same project, and the loan is repaid out of your income like any other loan.
Be careful with the argument that the energy saving pays the repayment. On a €40,000 loan over ten years the monthly repayment is in the hundreds, and very few Irish retrofits save that much a month on energy.
The honest case for borrowing is a warmer, drier, quieter house that costs less to run and is easier to sell, financed at a rate below the market. The case is not that it pays for itself. Anyone telling you it pays for itself is selling something.
Documented Irish costs and what households actually paid are on what homeowners actually paid. Read those figures before you decide what to borrow.
Get your itemised quote from a registered provider first, because the lender wants documentation from the contractor before they will process anything.
Then approach two or three participating lenders rather than one. The rate is not fixed across the scheme, so the gap between the best and worst offer on the same loan is real money over ten years.
Compare the APR and the total cost of credit, ask about early repayment charges, and confirm whether the loan can be drawn in stages if the works are phased. See how the process works end to end.
SBCI says loans are available under the scheme up to 31 December 2026, unless the scheme is fully allocated before then.
Fully allocated before then is the part to take seriously. Schemes like this have closed early before when demand ran ahead of the allocation.
If you are seriously planning a retrofit and the loan is part of how you pay for it, do not leave the application to the last quarter of the year.
Lenders want an itemised quote from a registered provider before they will process anything. Start there, then take the paperwork to two or three lenders.
There is no single scheme rate. SEAI and SBCI both say rates are lower than standard market rates but differ between the participating finance providers. Ask each lender for the APR in writing and compare the total cost of credit rather than the headline number.
€5,000 to €75,000 per property, over a term of one to ten years, unsecured. There is a cap of three properties and €225,000 in total per borrower.
Yes. SEAI states you must obtain an eligible SEAI grant for the works you plan to do. The loan is designed to sit alongside a grant aided upgrade, not to replace one.
SEAI's loan page says the works must be carried out by an SEAI registered One Stop Shop or a Community Project Co-ordinator. Confirm the exact requirement with your lender before you plan around your own contractor, because the lender applies it.
No. At least 75 per cent of the loan has to go on eligible energy upgrade works, and up to 25 per cent can go on other home improvements such as making good, decorating and associated building work.
SBCI lists AIB, Bank of Ireland, An Post Money and PTSB, plus credit unions including Clonmel, Connect, First South, Listowel, Naomh Breandan, North Midlands and Progressive. Check the current SBCI list before applying, as participants change.
The loan is unsecured, so no charge is placed on your home and no personal guarantee is required under the scheme. It is still a debt with the normal consequences of default, so borrow what you can service.
SBCI says loans are available up to 31 December 2026 unless the scheme is fully allocated before then. If the loan is part of your plan, apply well ahead of the deadline.
Checked against the official pages on 27 August 2026. Grant terms change, so confirm current amounts with SEAI or your installer before you commit.