Housing subsidies in Styria 2026: two loans of €80,000, and the budget decides

Two loans, not one

Both guidelines started on 1 March 2026 and both are capped at €80,000 per application. They live on different pages of the province website and answer different questions: one is for a building site, the other for an existing house. The base amount is higher for the purchase, the surcharges are fewer.

A purchase between spouses, registered partners, partners living together or relatives in a direct line does not count as an acquisition under the purchase guideline. Buying your parents out is not funded.

Eigenheimförderung at the province · Große Eigenheimsanierung at the province

How much you get, and what it costs you

Both numbers come straight from the two guidelines: the loan is a sum of fixed amounts with a cap, and the repayment follows the printed table of half-yearly instalments. Nothing here is estimated. What the guideline leaves open is named where it matters.

What the repayment actually costs

The guideline prints half-yearly instalments as a percentage of the loan, rising in six five-year steps, and an interest share for each. Read correctly, the table repays the loan to the cent in exactly 30 years: the last instalment comes out smaller than the table because the plan is built to end there. For the full €80,000 that means €89,812.12 paid in total, of which €9,812.12 is interest.

A bank loan of the same size over the same 30 years at 3.5 % a year would cost €49,325 in interest, which is 5.0 times as much. The rate in that comparison is not our measurement, it is the number you put into the calculator above.

Eigenheimförderung guideline (PDF) · Große Eigenheimsanierung 2026 guideline (PDF)

The income limits, and what happens above them

The same limits apply to both programmes, on the annual net income of the whole household. They are not a cliff: above the limit the loan shrinks in five steps of €1,310, and only €6,550 above the limit is there nothing left.

This is the one place the guideline does not settle: "exceeding these amounts by €1,310 each reduces the amount by 20 percentage points each" does not say whether a part-step counts. Someone €300 over the limit loses nothing on one reading and 20 percentage points on the other. Our calculator takes the stricter reading so the answer is never too flattering. If you are close to the limit, ask the department before you plan with the money.

The surcharges, and the point where they stop paying

Four surcharges of €10,000 each for a new build, and the guideline says they can be combined. What it does not say is that the €80,000 cap eats them: the bigger the household, the sooner a surcharge is worth nothing.

From 3 people in the household the cap starts biting: the base amount plus all four surcharges comes to €85,000, and €5,000 of it is never paid. A household of that size that already qualifies for three surcharges gains nothing from the fourth. The table assumes a couple from two people on.

The budget is the deadline, not 31 December

Both guidelines say it plainly: subsidies are granted "first come first serve", by the time the application arrives, and only while money is left. The new-build pot holds €18,000,000, the purchase pot €10,500,000 for the loans plus €4,050,000 for the insulation grants. On 9 September 2026 the province's own bars showed 43 % and 87 % free. That is roughly €7,740,000 and €9,135,000, and at the maximum per application about 96 and 114 more applications. Not everybody takes the maximum, so those are lower bounds on the number of applications, not forecasts. The new-build programme started on 1 March and had used more than half its budget by early September; the purchase programme, which is the newer and less known of the two, had used an eighth.

The province publishes the remaining budget as a bar on its own pages. Those numbers move; ours are the reading of one day.

The grant for the insulation work

Only the purchase programme has this second part, and it is not a loan: a one-off payment that does not have to be repaid. The rate depends on how many of the four measures you actually complete, which is decided when you file the final claim, not when you register.

Eligible measures: insulating the external walls, the top floor ceiling or roof, the lowest floor ceiling or cellar ceiling, and replacing or repairing windows and external doors. A renovation concept is funded on top, up to €210 or 35 % of its cost. Any federal subsidy available must be claimed, and province and federal money together are capped at 30 % of eligible costs. If the insulation is not carried out as agreed, the loan has to be paid back.

Our own measurement: where €80,000 is worth the most

The loan is a fixed amount, the prices are not, so the same money is worth twice as much in one district as in another. Purchase prices per square metre of living space from Statistik Austria, a house of 130 m² as the yardstick, and the yardstick is named because with 100 m² every share would look better.

The spread is the point. In Graz (Stadt) the maximum loan covers 15 % of that house, in Leoben 32 %: the same money, more than twice the effect. Building land makes it sharper still. A plot of 700 m² costs €301,000 in Graz (Stadt) and €25,200 in Südoststeiermark. In the south-east the loan buys the plot three times over; in Graz it buys a quarter of it. And the districts where a fixed €80,000 counts for most are exactly the districts where the housing stock is old enough for the purchase programme, which wants a building older than 30 years.

The conditions that are not arithmetic

Settlement focus

A new home has to be built inside a settlement focus under § 2 (1) 31 StROG 2010, confirmed by the municipality. The City of Graz is exempt from the confirmation, and the multi-generation surcharge is exempt from the rule itself.

Citizenship

Austrian citizenship or equal status under § 7 (5) of the 1993 Styrian Housing Promotion Act, and everyone applying has to be of age.

Timing

For a new build the construction must not be finished when you apply, and no subsidy is possible once the central register shows the building as occupied or a completion notice exists. For a purchase the contract has to be dated 1 March 2026 or later.

Floor area

At least 30 m² of usable area, and the funded unit may not exceed 150 m² of conditioned area under the energy certificate; from six people in the household 170 m².

Main residence

Everyone counted for the amount has to use the home as their main residence, and the rights to the previous home have to be given up within six months. Second homes, holiday flats and weekend houses are excluded.

Land register

The loan is secured by a mortgage. The legal charge limit is 70 % of the recognised construction cost, and the province charge has to fit inside it. For a purchase the province also registers a ban on selling, which binds later owners.

Energy consultation

For a new build a technical energy consultation at a body recognised by the province has to be documented. For a purchase, energy certificates before and after the renovation have to be uploaded to the ZEUS database.

How to apply

1. New build: the application is made online only, through the province e-government portal. Only complete and properly filed applications count for the queue, and the queue is the order of arrival.
2. Purchase, step one: apply for the province loan at sanieren.steiermark.at before the budget runs out.
3. Purchase, step two: within six months of the letter of assurance, register for the insulation grant on the basis of a renovation concept. The registration holds for nine months with one measure and two years with two to four.
4. Purchase, step three: once the work is finished and invoiced, file the final claim. Only work done after the registration confirmation counts.

Questions people actually ask

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