Here is the announcement: the government will relax the gas connection rule, ten thousand more people can win

According to the Minister of Energy, it was planned that single-family homes built before 1990 would be eligible for the tender, but now he said: “single-family homes built before the end of 1990” will have this opportunity, so the eligibility date has been postponed by one year.

As a result of these two changes, the number of expected tender winners increases significantly, by about ten thousand.

Originally, the government expected nearly 20,000 winners at the announcement in early April, but now Csaba Lantos said: “according to our calculations, about 30,000 houses will fit” in the 108 billion HUF tender framework.

According to Portfolio’s information, in the near future the system of tender conditions may also be changed in other important areas, to which there is also a reference in the following notice of the Equilibrium Institute (income rule system, maximum eligibility).

By the way, the state secretary of the partner portfolio, Gergely Fábián, also indicated the cancellation of the gas connection rule in a morning NGM announcement, which we wrote about here. As he also indicated, professional consultations took place and as a result of these, the potential range of claimants will increase significantly due to the cancellation of the rule.

Lantos also made a reference to the application conditions, which will be modified as a result of various professional discussions, and today’s announcement of the Equilibrium Institute also talks about the negotiations and further proposals. Hungary’s largest independent think tank initiated the professional collaboration last autumn in order to speed up domestic building renovation, and since then hundreds of market and professional organizations have joined it. These organizations personally presented their proposals to Gergely Fábián, the State Secretary responsible for industrial policy and technology at the Ministry of National Economy.

At the meeting, the association coordinated by the Equilibrium Institute made, among other things, the following proposals regarding the energetic renovation of the domestic building stock:

• The higher the level of specific energy savings, the higher the proportion of state support. In other words, the level of subsidies must be tied to the level of energy savings achieved as a result of the intervention, in addition to differentiation according to income.
• In the case of all support schemes, it is worth helping people living in energy poverty with differentiated, targeted subsidies.
• The subsidy should not be conditional on the given family house being connected to the gas network, since typically many lower-income families heat with solid fuel — they should also be given the opportunity to participate in the subsidy program.
• It is essential that in the construction starting this year, instead of upgrading the gas heating, it is possible to replace the gas boiler with a heat pump.
• The organizations recommend that the state strive to increase the number of highly and low-skilled construction workers in the coming years, thereby reducing the bottleneck caused by the labor shortage in the housing renovation market. In the meantime, it is worth connecting the renewal of vocational training with meeting the workforce needs of the renovation program.
• For building energy renovation programs, assign a predictable roadmap for several years, so that families and market players can prepare. This is essential both for the supply of raw materials and the availability of suitably qualified professionals, and it also dampens market fluctuations.
• The professional organizations recommend that in the future, when buying and selling real estate with a lower energy rating, it will be mandatory to undertake modernization resulting in specific energy savings. Within this framework, the socially needy would receive support for carrying out the renovations.

According to the announcement, in addition to the release of the gas connection rules, it was also said that those with an income 30% lower than the gross average salary of those employed full-time (HUF 571,200) (gross HUF 399,840) can use the resources provided within the program with the maximum subsidy of HUF 3.5 million. The details of the draft call for tenders will be made public this week – concludes the announcement of the Equilibrium Institute.

In the program, Csaba Lantos indicated in connection with the Napenergia Plusz Program, which started in January: more than 28,000 pre-registrations have already taken place and applications are being processed and support decisions are being made. The other day, the ministry already provided information on more than 5,000 winners.

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