KfW 458 heating grant for private owners in 2026
What programme 458 pays today, to whom, until when, and where an application can fail. The examples published by KfW are recalculated with our calculator.
Worked through by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
Grant for your house
Grant
€15,680
| Grant rate | 56 % |
| Eligible costs | €28,000 |
| Your share | €16,320 |
Applying now, heat pump, guideline of 17 Aug 2026.
KfW 458 is the grant from Germany’s federal promotional bank for installing low-carbon heating in an existing residential building: a heat pump, biomass boiler, solar thermal, fuel cell or connection to a heat network. Applications from 21 July 2026 fall under the guideline of 17 August 2026. Every owner gets a 30 % basic grant. If you live in the property, you can add a 16 % climate speed bonus and an income bonus of up to 40 %, capped at 70 % in total, or 80 % on a low income. Eligible costs are capped at €28,000 for the first home and €15,000 for each of the second to sixth. A family on €40,000 with one child replacing an oil boiler with a €32,000 heat pump gets €22,400. If they apply on 1 February 2027 instead, it is €21,800, because the cap falls.
What KfW 458 pays for
The grant covers installing heating that runs on renewable energy in a building that already exists. That means heat pumps, biomass boilers such as pellet or wood chip, solar thermal, fuel cells, hydrogen-ready heating (the extra cost only) and connection to a building or district heat network. Eligible costs include not just the unit but installation, removal of the old system, radiator changes, specialist planning and site supervision. Second-hand units, self-built systems and prototypes are excluded. If you only optimise your heating, for example new pumps or hydraulic balancing, that goes to BAFA rather than KfW (heating optimisation).
The rules are in the federal guideline for single measures (Federal Gazette), the details in information sheet 458. Where they differ, the guideline prevails. There is no legal right to the money: KfW decides within the federal budget available. All documents and the online portal „Meine KfW“ are in German only, so expect to work with your installer on the paperwork.
The four parts of the grant
| Part | Rate | Who | Condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic grant | 30 % | all owners | eligible system, registered installer |
| Climate speed bonus | 16 % | owner-occupiers only | replaces oil, coal, night storage, gas flat heater, or gas and biomass aged 20 years or more |
| Income bonus | 10 % to 40 % | owner-occupiers only | taxable income up to €50,000 |
| Value-added bonus | 15 % | heat pumps | from the first quarter of 2027, EU origin |
The bonuses add up until the ceiling is reached: 70 % of eligible costs, or 80 % for households with income up to €30,000. The 5 % efficiency bonus for ground source or natural refrigerant and the €2,500 supplement for low-dust biomass boilers were abolished on 21 July 2026. An English guide that still lists them describes 2024 or 2025 (efficiency bonus).
Income means the average taxable income on your German tax assessments for the second and third year before you apply, so 2023 and 2024 for a 2026 application. Income earned abroad counts too. If a child under 18 lives with you and you receive child benefit for them, KfW deducts €10,000. The three bands are explained under income bonus.
Cost caps: first home, further homes
KfW does not fund the whole invoice, only costs up to a cap per building. For the first home it is €28,000, for the second to sixth €15,000 each, and €8,000 each from the seventh. A two-family house reaches €43,000, a building with five homes €88,000. The cap applies to the building once, across all applications: anything already funded is deducted.
What is new is that only the first-home amount falls every six months, on 1 February and 1 August, by €750 each time. The climate speed bonus drops at the same dates in steps of 4 %. What counts is the day KfW receives the application, not the installation date.
| Application from | Cap first home | Climate bonus |
|---|---|---|
| 21 July 2026 | €28,000 | 16 % |
| 1 February 2027 | €27,250 | 12 % |
| 1 August 2027 | €26,500 | 8 % |
| 1 February 2028 | €25,750 | 4 % |
| 1 August 2028 | €25,000 | 0 % |
| 1 February 2029 | €24,250 | 0 % |
Apply now or later?
Grant on that date
€11,445
| Climate speed bonus | 12 % |
| If you apply now | €12,880 |
| Waiting costs | €1,435 |
Income above €50,000, so no income bonus.
KfW’s own examples, recalculated
KfW shows three households on its product page. Our calculator reaches the same amount for each, which is the test behind every figure on this site.
| Case | Eligible | Grant |
|---|---|---|
| Two-family house, oil replaced by a ground source heat pump, owner lives in one unit, no income bonus | €41,000 | €15,580 |
| Single-family house, 10-year-old gas boiler replaced by pellets, income €47,000 | €28,000 | €11,200 |
| Flat in a five-unit owners’ association, night storage replaced by a split heat pump, income €70,000 | €17,600 | €8,096 |
In the two-family house the whole building gets the basic grant, but the climate bonus only applies to the half the owner lives in. The pellet case gets no climate bonus because the gas boiler was under 20 years old; the 10 % income bonus remains. In the owners’ association the cap is split evenly across five flats. A landlord with €32,000 of costs in a single-family house receives €8,400 (grants for landlords).
Before you apply: three traps
First, the contract. Before applying you need a supply or service contract with a clause tying it to grant approval, and the planned installation date. A contract without that clause counts as starting the project, and the grant is lost. Once the application is in, work may begin, though before approval at your own risk. Second, the confirmation for the application (Bestätigung zum Antrag): an installer or a listed energy efficiency expert issues it, and without it the portal will not accept the application. Third, proof of income: KfW accepts only tax assessments (Steuerbescheide), not a payslip summary. If you have no German assessment for one of the two years, for instance because you moved to Germany recently, the income bonus is lost. The steps are set out under how to apply.
After approval you have 36 months to install, then 6 months to submit the evidence. The system must be used as intended for 10 years. If your own share is large, the top-up loan covers up to €120,000 per home.
What the deadline costs
The family above, income €40,000, one child, oil boiler, €32,000 heat pump, would have received €21,000 with an application by 20 July 2026. Today it is €22,400, because the ceiling for their income has risen to 80 %. On 1 February 2027 it falls to €21,800. Households above €50,000 are hit twice, because their climate bonus also shrinks. The grant calculator shows the comparison for your house.