Fix First Home › Ontario › Better Homes Ottawa Loan Program
Better Homes Ottawa Loan Program open
Administered by the City of Ottawa, delivered by EnviroCentre.
Ottawa's loan for home energy upgrades: $10,000 to $125,000 at 4.33% fixed over 20 years, repaid on the property tax bill, with a 4% administrative fee. Participants also get a heat pump incentive of $700 a ton for a cold-climate air-source heat pump.
source · verified 27 September 2026
What it pays
- Interest rate
- 4.33%, fixed
- Term
- 20 years
- Loan
- $10,000 to $125,000, or 10% of the property's assessed value if that is less, with the interest counted inside the 10%
- Administrative fee
- 4% of the loan value
- How you repay
- A local improvement charge, applied once a year in May, on the property tax bill from June of the year after the project is finished
- Paying early
- Allowed at any time, without penalty
- Money up front
- Half the loan on request; interest starts on that half when it is paid
- Other work
- Up to 30% of the loan can go to other items, including a secondary suite and flood protection such as backwater valves, sump pumps and waterproofing
| Upgrade | Condition | Up to |
|---|---|---|
| Cold-climate air-source heat pump | Central, mini-split or multi-split on Natural Resources Canada's cold-climate list, at least 12,000 BTU/h, 80% capacity kept in the cold, 55 dB or quieter; per ton | $700 |
| Ground-source heat pump | Per ton, plus $5 per metre of vertical well or horizontal loop | $1,000 |
| Home energy assessment | Taken off the loan, only if Home Renovation Savings is not paying you the same $600 | $600 |
Who is eligible
Who can apply
- You own an eligible residential property in Ottawa: a detached or semi-detached house, a townhouse, or a multi-unit building of three storeys or less
- Property tax and City accounts in good standing, with five years of payments in good standing
- Not enrolled in the City's tax deferral programme or a CMHC mortgage deferral
- New owners need a credit score of at least 600
What disqualifies you
The rules people find out about after the work is done.
- Natural gas equipment: the programme "does not fund natural gas-powered upgrades—such as furnaces or water heaters".
Where the application goes
Delivered by EnviroCentre, which also offers a free retrofit manager while funding lasts. Aim to finish within a year; a six-month extension is possible.
| If this is you | Apply here |
|---|---|
| Apply and ask | [email protected] |
| Programme details | betterhomesottawa.ca |
The thing most pages get wrong
The programme's own site still promotes a loan that is gone. Better Homes Ottawa's rebates page says "The Canada Greener Homes Initiative provides interest-free loans"; that federal loan stopped approving applications. The loan on offer here charges 4.33% plus a 4% fee, and contractor pages quote the heat pump incentive at far less than the programme's own $700 a ton.
What 4.33% and a 4% fee come to
On yearly instalments, $50,000 borrowed becomes $52,000 with the fee, repaid as 20 payments of about $3,940: some $78,800 in all. Ottawa publishes no worked example; the arithmetic is ours. Durham Region lends the same kind of loan at 2% over 15 years.
The cap counts the interest
Better Homes Ottawa says the cost of borrowing "is included in the maximum eligible Local Improvement Charge (LIC), which cannot exceed 10% of property value". A second application is allowed, from $5,000, as long as the total stays inside the limit.
Sources
- https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/budget-finance-and-corporate-planning/funding/environmental-funding/better-homes-ottawa/better-homes-ottawa-loan-program — primary source, read 27 September 2026
- https://betterhomesottawa.ca/rebate-and-incentive-programs/better-homes-loan-program/
- https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/budget-finance-and-corporate-planning/funding/environmental-funding/better-homes-ottawa/incentives-and-rebates