Standard New Green Savings programme to end in Czechia, leaving only Light

From next year, support for all partial insulation and renovation projects will be available only through the New Green Savings (NZÚ) Light programme, while comprehensive renovations will be supported through the Renovate Grandma’s House programme. Support under the standard NZÚ scheme will end and be consolidated under the Light programme. Environment Minister Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL) said this at a press conference today. Applicants seeking support for renovations of family houses will also be able to receive advance payments under both programmes and apply for a preferential loan from banks and savings banks. The conditions for drawing subsidies for apartments will not change, nor will those for replacing heating sources in family houses. The new conditions will take effect on 1 February 2025, and calls for applications under the newly defined programmes will be announced in January.

The New Green Savings programme has been running for 15 years and, according to Hladík, around 480.000 applications have been approved and 109 billion crowns invested over that period.

The changes to the rules are intended to encourage more people to undertake comprehensive property renovations, the minister said. Harmonising some of the requirements should also make the application process simpler. There are currently three options for support for house renovations: the standard NZÚ, the Light version and Renovate Grandma’s House. There are also three other schemes for apartment renovations. For example, advance payments are currently available only under NZÚ Light, which the Ministry of the Environment (MŽP) established as a rapid form of assistance for vulnerable groups. Preferential loans, by contrast, have been available only to applicants under Renovate Grandma’s House, which is more costly than the standard NZÚ and NZÚ Light schemes. Applicants to the Light and Renovate Grandma’s House programmes will also be allowed to own one additional property; following a change made this year, this condition applied only to people receiving support through Renovate Grandma’s House.

From next year, support will be aimed primarily at middle-income households, according to Hladík. They often put off necessary renovations because they lack the funds to pay for projects upfront. Only individuals will be eligible to apply, although legal entities had rarely sought support in the past anyway, the environment minister said.

„At the same time, all applicants will be able to obtain a preferential loan for insulation and, potentially, measures combined with it. It will be possible to receive more than one million crowns upfront for a comprehensive renovation under Renovate Grandma’s House, while under the NZÚ Light programme, all households will newly be able to apply for support for a wide range of individual measures, either separately or in combination. NZÚ Light will therefore newly offer contributions for energy-saving measures to both ordinary households and, as before, low-income groups,“ Hladík said.

Applicants for subsidies for partial insulation will receive 30 percent of the total costs as a base amount, while applicants for comprehensive renovations will receive half of the costs. As under the programmes’ current arrangements, additional financial bonuses may be added to these amounts. For example, vulnerable households—including seniors, people receiving benefits and people with third-degree disabilities—can receive up to 80 percent of the cost of partial renovations costing up to 250.000 Kč. If costs are higher, support for the amount above that threshold will be just 30 percent of the expenditure.

The New Green Savings programme has seen a significant rise in interest only in recent years. According to MŽP data, of the 480.000 applications approved under the current government, 350.000 have been processed for almost 75 billion crowns. Over the past three years, the standard NZÚ scheme—which is now ending—received around 88.500 applications worth 17 billion Kč, while the Light version, launched in 2023, received 95.000 applications worth 11 billion Kč. Renovate Grandma’s House, also launched in 2023, attracted less interest for comprehensive renovations. More than 6000 applications worth 6,1 billion Kč have been approved under the programme.