Warmer Kiwi Homes 2026: how the 90% grant actually works
EECA pays up to $3,450 towards ceiling and underfloor insulation, and up to $3,450 towards a heat pump. The discount is taken off your installer's quote, so you never pay full price and wait for a rebate. Below: the eligibility logic in plain English, the 2026 changes most homeowners haven't heard about, and what to do if you don't qualify.
Updated 24 May 2026 · By Cornelia Zavoianu, Selectra NZ energy editor
$3,450
Max grant per measure (insulation or heat pump)
~$4,300
Average cost of an insulation retrofit
~$640/yr
Typical heating bill saving after upgrade
~4 months
Current wait from quote to install
In one paragraph
Warmer Kiwi Homes is a government grant scheme run by EECA that pays 50% to 90% of the cost of ceiling and underfloor insulation, and up to 90% of the cost of an approved high-wall heat pump. It is reserved for homes built before 2008, where the owner lives in the home as their main residence, and where the household either holds a Community Services Card or SuperGold Combo Card, or lives in an area EECA classifies as low or middle income. The discount is applied directly on the installer's quote, so you only ever pay the unsubsidised remainder.
What changed in 2026
Three rule changes to watch this year
EECA tightened the scheme for the 2026 financial year. If a wood burner was on your shortlist, the window is closing fast.
9 Jan 2026
Wood and pellet burners are out
EECA stopped accepting new applications for wood-burner and pellet-burner grants. From this date, the only funded heating option is a high-wall heat pump.
27 Feb 2026
Last day to process burner quotes
If you signed a wood or pellet burner quote before 9 January, your service provider must have it accepted and processed by this date or the subsidy lapses.
Until June 2027
Programme extended, deciles broadened
Insulation grants now reach middle-income areas, not just high-need ones. Heating grants stayed targeted to low-income households. Funding is confirmed through 30 June 2027.
What the grant pays for
Coverage and subsidy tiers in plain English
The same scheme pays a different percentage depending on which "area band" your address falls into. EECA decides the band, not you.
| Measure | Subsidy you receive | Typical out-of-pocket | Annual saving |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Ceiling & underfloor insulation Wall insulation is not funded. |
|
From $430 (90% tier) up to $2,150 (50% tier), on a $4,300 average retrofit. |
~$340 / yr |
|
High-wall heat pump Ducted and floor-mount systems are not funded. Wood and pellet burners were excluded from 9 January 2026. |
|
Around 10% of the installed price — typically $400 to $700 depending on the model. |
~$640 / yr |
Extras bundled into the same project: EECA funds the work needed to make insulation possible — clearing the underfloor, fixing minor roof leaks, replacing dangerous old downlights with LEDs, and minor earthing repairs needed to install the heat pump safely. These are only paid when they are required to deliver the main grant.
Who actually qualifies
Eligibility, broken down by what you're applying for
The two grants run on different rules. A home can qualify for one and not the other — and most do.
Insulation grant
Open to both low-income and middle-income areas. The broadest of the two.
- You own and live in the home as your main residence (rentals and second homes are excluded).
- The home was built before 2008.
- You hold a Community Services Card or SuperGold Combo Card or the address sits inside an EECA low- to middle-income area.
- The home currently has no ceiling and underfloor insulation (or the existing insulation no longer meets the standard).
- i Having received an insulation grant for a previous home does not disqualify you at a new address.
Heat-pump grant
Narrower than insulation. Only the 90% tier exists, and only for the lowest-income tier.
- You own and live in the home, built before 2008.
- You hold a Community Services Card or SuperGold Combo Card, or the address sits inside a low-income area (middle-income areas do not qualify).
- Ceiling and underfloor insulation is already installed to EECA standard. A free inspection confirms it if it wasn't installed under a government programme.
- The main living area has no operational fixed heater — no heat pump, no wood or pellet burner, no flued gas heater, no central heating. If any of these are already installed and working, the home is not eligible.
How the discount actually arrives
It's not a rebate — it's a discount on the quote
Most government home-upgrade schemes around the world reimburse you after you pay. Warmer Kiwi Homes works the opposite way, and that single design choice has big practical consequences.
EECA approves your address
You enter your address in the online tool or call 0800 749 782. EECA matches it against the area band and confirms your subsidy level before any installer visits.
Installer quotes the full job
An EECA-approved provider visits, prices the work, and prints a quote showing both the gross cost and the EECA grant subtracted line by line. No payment is taken yet.
You pay only the shortfall
You sign, pay only the unsubsidised portion, and the installer claims the grant directly from EECA. From start of quote to install currently takes around four months.
From the eligibility tool to a warm home
How the application actually works, step by step
EECA's eligibility tool takes around five minutes. Everything after that runs through one of its approved Service Providers — you do not deal with EECA directly past the first form.
Check eligibility online or by phone
Use the official EECA eligibility tool or call 0800 749 782. The form asks for your address, whether you hold a Community Services Card or SuperGold Combo Card, the home's age and what is already installed. It returns your subsidy band (90%, 80% or 50%) on the spot.
EECA matches you to a Service Provider
The online form suggests one or more EECA-approved Service Providers covering your region. You don't pick from a public directory — EECA controls the matching to manage installer capacity. The provider then contacts you to arrange a free, no-obligation visit.
Receive a free quote showing the grant on the same line
The Service Provider measures the home, confirms what's funded, and prints a quote with the gross cost, the EECA subsidy and your out-of-pocket on the same document. You can request a second quote from a different Service Provider — and you should: identical jobs regularly come in $800 to $1,200 apart.
Sign, pay your portion, install
Once you accept the quote, you sign with the Service Provider directly and pay only your share. EECA pays the rest to the installer behind the scenes. According to EECA, current waits from quote to install run around four months due to installer demand — so May and June bookings tend to land before the worst of winter, while August bookings often push into spring.
Who delivers the work
EECA does not install — the Service Provider network does
Warmer Kiwi Homes is funded by EECA but delivered by a national network of contracted installers operating under EECA standards.
Who they are
Service Providers are private NZ installation companies vetted, audited and contracted by EECA. They cover regional patches — some are nationwide, some specialise in a single island, some only operate in two or three council areas. EECA does not publish the full directory publicly because matching is done through the eligibility tool to balance installer load and ensure quality control.
What they're allowed to install
Approved Service Providers can install ceiling and underfloor insulation, and supply and install high-wall heat pumps — only the products that meet EECA's technical specification. Off-spec product (e.g. a cheaper imported heat pump, a ducted or floor-mount system, anything below the minimum R-value for insulation) cannot be funded under the scheme even if the household qualifies for the grant.
What if you don't like the quote you receive
You are not locked in to the first Service Provider EECA suggests. You can ask the tool — or the 0800 749 782 line — to refer you to a different approved installer in your region, and you can compare two quotes before committing. The grant amount itself is fixed by EECA, so a competitive quote only moves your out-of-pocket; it doesn't reduce the subsidy.
Council top-ups stack with the EECA grant
Several regional councils — including Auckland, Wellington, Hawke's Bay, Otago and Bay of Plenty — run their own warm-home programmes that can be combined with Warmer Kiwi Homes, lifting the effective subsidy as high as 100% in some cases. The Service Provider matched to your address is usually the same one delivering the council top-up, which simplifies the paperwork. Ask the installer explicitly: EECA's eligibility tool does not surface council top-ups automatically.
What most articles miss
Three things about the scheme that aren't in the brochure
Why the discount happens at the quote, not afterwards
A rebate-after-payment model would lock the lowest-income households out — they can't front a $4,300 cheque even if they get most of it back. By forcing the installer to claim the grant directly from EECA, the scheme makes the upgrade affordable for the households who need it most, not just for those who can absorb the cash-flow gap. It also gives EECA tight control: only registered installers see the subsidy, which is harder to game than reimbursing receipts from any tradesperson.
Why wood burners got cut, even though they were popular
Burners were a cheap heating answer for off-grid and rural homes, and the grant helped install thousands of them. But councils with air-quality limits (Christchurch, parts of Otago, the Nelson basin) increasingly restrict solid-fuel installs, and modern wood burner emissions still beat older units only marginally. Heat pumps deliver three to five units of heat for every unit of electricity, run on the same renewable-heavy grid New Zealand already has, and produce zero local emissions. EECA pulled the funding so the scheme stops paying for a technology Aotearoa is regulating against at council level — a coherence move, not a budget cut.
The middle-income expansion is real, but uneven
When EECA broadened insulation eligibility into middle-income areas, it cut the subsidy to 50% — half of what high-need households get. That makes sense as targeting, but it also means an identical retrofit on two near-identical 1970s villas can cost $430 in one suburb and $2,150 in the next. The EECA area map is based on Statistics NZ deprivation data, which lags actual cost-of-living conditions by several years. Two takeaways: check your address before assuming, and don't apply on behalf of a friend without confirming their band — the eligibility tool is the only authoritative answer.
Next actions
What to do this week if you want a 2026 install
The four-month wait is the binding constraint. Quotes booked in May land in spring; quotes booked in August land mid-winter — when installers are at capacity.
Run the EECA eligibility check first
Go to eeca.govt.nz or call 0800 749 782. Have your address ready. The check is free, takes two minutes, and tells you which band (90% / 80% / 50%) applies before you book any quotes.
Get two quotes, not one
The subsidy is fixed but the underlying job price is not. Two installers on the same house regularly quote $800–$1,200 apart, which directly changes your out-of-pocket. Both quotes must come from EECA-approved providers.
Bundle insulation with the heat pump
If you qualify for both, doing them together is cheaper per visit and means a single contractor manages the access work, earthing checks and downlight swaps. Splitting the jobs across providers often doubles the assessment fees.
Check council top-ups
Auckland, Wellington, Otago and Bay of Plenty regional councils add a top-up that can lift the subsidy to 90–100% of the cost. EECA's tool doesn't surface these automatically — ask your installer or check your council's energy page.
If your address fails the check
The 1% green-loan alternative
The four major banks (ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Kiwibank) each offer an energy-upgrade loan capped at $80,000, fixed at around 1% p.a. for three years. Westpac runs a similar product (Greater Choices) capped at $50,000. Combined, the major banks have written over NZ$1 billion in green-home lending since 2022.
These loans cover everything Warmer Kiwi Homes does and more — double glazing, solar PV, batteries, hot-water heat pumps, EV chargers. The catch: you need to be an existing home-loan customer at most banks, have enough equity, and confirm the standard rate that kicks in after the 1% promotional period ends. On a $40,000 upgrade, the difference between 1% and a typical 7% home-loan rate is roughly $2,400 a year in interest avoided.
Compare NZ green energy loansIf you also receive NZ Super or a main benefit, the Winter Energy Payment automatically tops up your weekly payment by $20.46 to $31.82 from 1 May to 1 October — separate from Warmer Kiwi Homes, with no application required.
Reader questions
The Selectra expert answers your Warmer Kiwi Homes questions
Yes. EECA links the grant to the property, not the person. If you move to a different home you own and live in, and that home meets the eligibility rules, you can apply again. The previous grant has no bearing on the new application.
Often, yes. Where a property has been assessed as physically unable to take insulation — for example, no underfloor crawl space or a sealed ceiling — EECA can approve a heat pump grant on its own, even though the standard rule requires insulation to be in place first. The assessor flags this during the free inspection.
No. Warmer Kiwi Homes funds ceiling and underfloor insulation only — not wall insulation, not double glazing, not window upgrades. For glazing you need to either pay in full or finance the work through a major-bank green loan (compared in the section above).
No. The scheme is reserved for owner-occupied main residences. Landlords cannot apply for a rental, even if the tenant holds a Community Services Card. Rental properties are covered separately by the Healthy Homes Standards, which set minimum heating, insulation and ventilation rules that the landlord must fund themselves.
EECA bands are drawn at the area level using Statistics NZ deprivation data, so the boundary can run down the middle of a street. If your neighbour holds a Community Services Card or a SuperGold Combo Card they automatically jump to the 90% band regardless of address. If neither of you holds a card, the band is fixed by your postcode area — and there is no appeal process.
Only if your service provider had your quote accepted and processed before 27 February 2026. Quotes signed before 9 January 2026 but not processed by that date are no longer eligible. The cutoff is administrative, not project-based — what matters is the EECA paperwork date, not the install date.
Around four months at the moment. The bottleneck is installer capacity, not EECA approval. Demand spikes between April and July as households book ahead of winter, so applying in late spring or early summer typically gets the work done before the cold months.
Keep reading
Other ways to cut your NZ power bill
Warmer Kiwi Homes only funds insulation and one heat pump per eligible home. These guides cover the levers EECA does not touch.
Auto-paid benefit
Winter Energy Payment 2026
$20.46 to $31.82 per week from 1 May to 1 October for NZ Super and main-benefit recipients — no application needed.
Bank green loan
1% NZ green energy loans
If your address doesn't qualify for Warmer Kiwi Homes, ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Kiwibank lend up to $80,000 at 1% for three years.
Generate at home
Solar power in New Zealand
EECA does not fund solar, but the major-bank green loans do. How much rooftop solar makes sense for an NZ household.
Pick the right plan
Low-user vs standard-user plans
After insulation, your annual kWh drops. Whether to stay on a low-user plan once the home warms up can be worth a few hundred dollars a year.
Compare NZ electricity providers while you wait for install
Insulation and a heat pump cut heating use by around 25%. Switching to the cheapest power plan in your region can shave another $400 a year — independently of any grant. See how NZ power bills are built to spot the lines you can actually move.
Explore power plans