Heating grants for rented apartments: what support can the owner actually claim?

For a rented apartment, the heating subsidy a landlord in Germany can claim is KfW's grant 458 at its 30 per cent base rate, on eligible costs capped per flat. The bonuses that lift the rate to 70 or 80 per cent are reserved for owners who live in the unit as their main home. Who applies depends on who owns the heating: you, for a system belonging to your flat, or the owners' association (WEG) through its administrator, for central heating. Either way, a conditional installation contract comes first and the application goes in before work begins (KfW 458).

To choose between programmes, see which KfW programme fits; for a whole-building efficiency renovation, see KfW 261 in a WEG.

KfW's product sheet (Merkblatt, valid from 24 September 2026) admits a private owner of a flat, let or not, for work on their own unit (Sondereigentum); a private owner of a house, including an undivided multi-unit building; and the WEG, through its administrator (Verwalter), for work on common property (Gemeinschaftseigentum) (458 Merkblatt). A civil-law partnership (GbR) registered as owner uses the company programme 459 instead. A recent buyer can apply once a priority notice of conveyance (Auflassungsvormerkung) is registered, but must be the registered owner by the evidence stage.

Central heating is common property. KfW's glossary treats a gas storey heating (Gasetagenheizung) as part of the unit, but the declaration of division (Teilungserklärung) decides (§ 5 WEG); see heating ownership and who pays for repairs. Even then, a heat pump's outdoor unit on a façade or balcony usually touches common property, which the owners can permit by resolution (§ 20(1) WEG).

Eligible are solar thermal, biomass, electric heat pumps, fuel cells, the extra cost of hydrogen-ready boilers, listed innovative renewable systems, and connection to a building or district heat network; plain gas or oil boilers are not. The building application (Bauantrag) must be at least five years old, the heat distribution must be optimised, including hydraulic balancing (hydraulischer Abgleich), and an expert from the dena list or the installer must confirm the technical minimum requirements. Where the municipality has formally required connection to a heat network, only that connection is funded (458 Merkblatt). Eligible costs include installation, radiators, removal of the old boiler and expert planning (KfW Infoblatt).

Sources: 458 Merkblatt; KfW 458.

A let flat therefore receives 30 per cent; no bonus is currently open to landlords. Older guides mention a 5-point efficiency bonus for certain heat pumps that landlords could also claim. It was in the federal guideline of 21 December 2023 (BEG EM 2023) and is absent from the guideline in force since 21 July 2026 (BEG EM 2026).

The same guideline cuts the heat-pump rate to 15 per cent from the first quarter of 2027, plus a 15-point value-added bonus (Wertschöpfungs-Bonus) for EU-made heat pumps: open to landlords, but it restores 30 per cent rather than adding to it. KfW calls it planned, with details to follow (KfW 458), so ask the installer where the unit is made.

Eligible costs are capped per building at €28,000 for the first unit, €15,000 each for units two to six and €8,000 for each further unit (458 Merkblatt). The total is shared equally across all units, so work serving only your flat, such as a storey heating, is capped at your flat's equal share, whatever its size. The heating cap applies per building regardless of timing, so earlier grants in the building reduce what remains (BEG EM 2026, no. 8.3). For applications from 1 February 2027, the first-unit amount falls by €750 every six months, to €22,000 from 1 August 2030.

The 458 Merkblatt sets six steps:

1. Confirmation for the application (Bestätigung zum Antrag, BzA): the expert or installer records the planned system, eligible costs and technical compliance. Planning and advice may precede the application (BEG EM 2026, no. 9.2.1).
2. A conditional contract. Sign a supply or service contract (Lieferungs- oder Leistungsvertrag) that takes effect only on KfW's approval, or lapses on refusal (aufschiebende oder auflösende Bedingung), with an expected implementation date. Without that condition, signing counts as starting the project and rules out funding; it cannot be added later. KfW publishes model wording.
3. Application. Register yourself in KfW's portal, Meine KfW, and apply with the BzA reference and the contract before any work on site. Outside WEG applications, KfW accepts no proxy.
4. Approval and work. After KfW's approval (Zusage), work can begin; it must finish within 36 months.
5. Evidence. The installer or expert confirms completion (Bestätigung nach Durchführung, BnD). Within six months of the last invoice, you identify yourself and upload the invoices (German, in euros, showing the property address, paid by transfer) and your tax ID.
6. Payout into your account after a positive check, usually mid-month or at month-end.

Keep the records, and use the system as funded, for ten years. KfW reports payouts of €3,000 or more a year to the tax authorities.

For central heating, the administrator files one base application (Basisantrag) at 30 per cent and the grant goes to the WEG's account. Owner-occupiers add bonuses through a supplementary application (Zusatzantrag); landlords have none to add. Your share comes through the levy, which the WEG may collect in full first (levy example).

If your flat is in Berlin, Dresden or Leipzig and you live elsewhere, Alpha Minoris's Vermieter-Autopilot can coordinate the project communications under your written mandate: installer appointments, tenant access, contractor scheduling and correspondence with the WEG administrator. You remain the landlord and the applicant; since KfW accepts no proxy for a flat owner, Alpha Minoris does not file the application and cannot promise approval.

Illustrative example. Fictional figures. A private investor living in another city owns a let 60 m² flat in Dresden, in a 12-unit WEG building with a 1994 building application. The flat's gas storey heating belongs to the unit under the Teilungserklärung, and the owners permit an outdoor unit on its balcony. The installer's BzA confirms €22,000 of eligible costs, gross (the owner is assumed unable to reclaim VAT): an air-to-water heat pump, installation, boiler removal, hydraulic balancing and two radiators. Contract and application in October 2026; the owner pays the invoice in full and receives the grant after the evidence check.

The grant covers about 17 per cent of the bill, because €9,416.67 sits above the flat's cap.

For contrast only: an owner living in this flat as their main home would add the 16 per cent climate-speed bonus for replacing a working gas storey heating, giving 46 per cent of €12,583.33 (€5,788.33) on an application by 31 January 2027, and possibly an income bonus. None of this applies to the let flat.

Timing matters too. Filed from 1 February 2027, the flat's share falls to €12,520.83 and the base grant to €3,756.25. If the heat-pump rule is in force by then, a unit made outside the EU would receive 15 per cent, €1,878.13, raising the owner's contribution to €20,121.87.

On tax, a public grant generally reduces the deductible or depreciable cost (R 21.5 EStR); confirm with your tax adviser (Steuerberater), and note the 15 per cent rule if you bought within three years.

The supplementary loan (Ergänzungskredit) can bridge the wait for the grant (KfW 358/359; 358/359 Merkblatt). 358, with an extra interest advantage, is for owner-occupiers with household income up to €90,000; a landlord uses 359. You apply through a bank or other financing partner within 12 months of the grant approval and before the grant is paid; work may start once the grant is approved. The loan covers up to 100 per cent of the eligible costs in the approval, including costs above the grant cap, up to €120,000 per unit: in the example, the full €22,000, subject to the lender's credit decision and collateral. For common-property works, only the WEG can borrow, so your levy share needs separate funding.

Installing a heating system in a let flat is a modernisation (§ 555b no. 1a BGB). Where you take a grant, the annual rent may rise by 10 per cent of the costs less the grant, with a flat 15 per cent treated as maintenance, and by no more than €0.50 per square metre a month within six years (§ 559e BGB). Grants never count as recoverable costs, and a reduced-rate public loan lowers the increase by the annual interest saving (§ 559a BGB). In the example, the cap decides: at most €30 a month.

Before you sign an installer's quote for a let flat, check who owns the heating, what the WEG must approve and what the 30 per cent base grant covers. Discuss your first rental property with Alpha Minoris.