House renovation subsidies a failure due to complicated conditions

Conditions will change from late March.

Environment Minister Ján Budaj.Environment Minister Ján Budaj. (Source: TASR)

Last September, Environment Minister Ján Budaj presented subsidies for the renovation of old houses. He estimated that the first 4,000 applicants would have signed on by the end of the year.

This did not happen. The Slovak Environment Agency (SAŽP), which oversees the subsidy schemes, approved one application by the end of the year. The situation did not improve much after that, the pilot bids closing at the end of February.

According to experts, state administration and complicated conditions discourage house owners.

SkryťTurn off ads
SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement
SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement

Unfulfilled expectations

By mid-2026, 30,000 houses in Slovakia will be renovated using subsidies. Half a billion euros from the EU recovery plan has been allocated for the purpose. Last autumn the SAŽP poured the first €30 million into two pilot bids.

While the first is intended for all applicants, the second with more favourable conditions is open to families with at least four children, or with a severely disabled child.

The rest of this article is premium content at Spectator.sk
Subscribe now for full access

I already have subscription - Sign in

Subscription provides you with:
  • Immediate access to all locked articles (premium content) on Spectator.sk
  • Special weekly news summary + an audio recording with a weekly news summary to listen to at your convenience (received on a weekly basis directly to your e-mail)
  • PDF version of the latest issue of our newspaper, The Slovak Spectator, emailed directly to you
  • Access to all premium content on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk

Top stories

News digest: Don't forget- clocks go forward on Sunday

More money from Brussels, US helicopters for Slovakia, and Bratislava airport's warning against fake websites.


10 h
Filip Toška holding chard in the hydroponic Hausnatura farm.

How a Mayan doomsday prophecy took a Slovak to hi-tech agriculture

Hydroponic farm run out of former telephone exchange.


9. mar
A Lutheran priest outside the Lutheran High School in Tisovec in 2007.

US teachers not rushing to teach English in Slovakia due to war

Dozens of Americans taught Slovak students in Tisovec in the past, but the local school is now struggling to find teachers from overseas.


21. mar
PM Eduard Heger announces his new political party, Demokrati, on March 7, 2023.

With his new party, Slovak PM embarks on a mission to unify

After two years as premier of an OĽaNO-led government, Eduard Heger is leaving the populist movement of Igor Matovič and hopes to establish a new political culture in Slovakia.


20. mar
SkryťClose ad