Home Energy Retrofit Financing Program

Switching from fossil fuel space heating to an electric heat pump.

Installing solar panels where the homeowner already has electric heating.

Installing a backup battery where solar panels are already in place.

Building envelope upgrades to reduce air leakage and improve energy efficiency, such as door and window replacements or adding insulation.

• The property must be within the municipal boundaries of the City of Nanaimo.
• The funding must be used for one or more of the above eligible improvements.
• The property tax status must be up-to-date.
• You must apply and sign a financing agreement before any work begins.
• You must complete a pre-upgrade EnerGuide evaluation. 
• Work must be completed by an approved contractor.
• You must join the free Home Energy Navigator program.
• Your total household income must be above the income limit for the CleanBC Better Homes Level 1 income threshold Energy Savings Program (ESP), unless you are already accepted in that program.
• If you qualify for rebates through ESP, City financing can only be used to cover eligible costs that are not covered by ESP funding.
• Households whose household income is above the 90^th percentile income threshold for the City of Nanaimo are not eligible. To see if your household income is above the 90^th percentile please check the chart below.

• Properties with an assessed value greater than $1.23 million are not eligible. 
  

# of adults in the household	Maximum income level
1	$185,505
2	$230,947
3	$283,919
4+	$344,712

 

Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Financing removes the initial financial burden of home efficiency upgrades by providing a specialized type of financing.  Unlike a personal loan you might receive from a bank, a PACE loan is tied to the property and not the person.  PACE loans are repaid through an additional charge on the home’s property tax.  The City’s Home Energy Retrofit Loan is currently based on the PACE model.

The City of Nanaimo is offering a 10-year zero-interest loan. For example, a participant who uses the full $15,000 in available financing will pay an additional $1,500 on their property tax bill each year over the next 10 years. 

Yes. You may pay off the entire balance of the Parcel Tax registered to your property. Payments received in full by December 31 will remove your property from the Parcel Tax Roll for the following year. No partial lump sum payments will be accepted. To pay your balance in full we require 10 business days to process your request

When the property is transferred to a new owner, the responsibility of financing payments is transferred to the new owner along with the property. In the same manner as property taxes, the amount owed by each owner is split proportionally to the number of days they owned the property in the year of sale.

During the process of sale, the homeowner should provide a copy of the Financing Agreement to the new owners. You also have the option of paying off the full balance of the financing owed when you decide to sell your house to clear your property of all charges if you prefer. A written request must be provided and please allow two weeks (10 business days) for the City of Nanaimo to process your request. 

The annual Home Energy Retrofit Financing Parcel Tax amount can be deferred as part of the Province of BC’s program. If you are already registered for automatic renewal in the deferment program, you are responsible for notifying the Province of the additional debt. For more information, check the BC Property Tax Deferment Program web pages or contact them at 1-888-355-2700.

Please note that participation in the Home Energy Retrofit Financing Program may change the equity calculation for your home and impact your eligibility for the Province’s Property Tax Deferment Program. You can use the Province’s online Equity Calculator to check whether you are still eligible for property tax deferment: https://forms.gov.bc.ca/taxes/property-tax-deferment-equitycalculator/

In addition to completing an application form online or in person at the City of Nanaimo Service and Resource Centre (411 Dunsmuir Street), applicants will be required to provide the most recent notice of tax assessment for all adults in the household and proof of property ownership for the primary applicant.  If an EnerGuide Assessment has been completed after April 1, 2024 you may also include that, otherwise an assessment will be required after you have been accepted into the program.  A signature is not required for the initial application but will be required on subsequent paperwork (petition and financing agreement) if your application is accepted.

You sure can!  In fact, we strongly encourage homeowners to access other loan and rebate opportunities and will help them find and apply for them!  Through registration in the Home Energy Navigator program, we will help loan applicants find and identify other financing and rebate opportunities that work best for them.  Where rebate opportunities, such as the BC Energy Savings Program or the BC Betterhomes rebates, are available we will encourage you to apply for them before requesting money through a loan.  After all, the only thing better than a zero-interest loan are rebates you don’t need to pay back.

Any costs exceeding the $15,000 financing offered by the City are the responsibility of the homeowner. Financial rebates are also available from CleanBC Better Homes.

Quotes should remain valid until the financing agreement is signed. Quotes will need to stay valid for at least 30 days, we encourage contractors to allow some flexibility on this front to allow homeowners time to submit their quotes and EnerGuide report for review and receive and sign the financing agreement. 

A building envelope upgrade can include any improvement to the exterior walls, doors, or windows of the home that will improve the energy efficiency of that home.  Examples of building envelope upgrades include insulation, windows, doors, and draft proofing.

No.  The financing can be used towards the purchase of an all-electric heat pump (all-electric systems eligible for Clean BC rebates are accepted) where the applicant is switching from a natural gas, oil, or propane heat source; but dual fuel heat pumps are not eligible.

Yes, if you own an eligible home in Nanaimo you can apply for the loan program, regardless of if it is your primary residency or not.  The property owner is responsible for submitting the registration form and entering into the Financing Agreement.  We ask that homeowners inform renters that they are applying for the loan program and the type and timeline for the planned retrofit.

The Program strongly recommends homeowners discuss the program with their lender to ensure participation does not violate the terms of their mortgage. The Financing Agreement signed with the City of Nanaimo includes a declaration that confirms you are not contravening the terms of your mortgage.

Yes, both a pre- and post-EnerGuide Assessment are required as a condition of approval for the Home Energy Retrofit loan.  We understand there is a cost to have an EnerGuide assessment done, rebates are available to help reduce this cost, further financial assistance may be available as needed (details to come).  The cost of the post-EnerGuide loan can be included in your loan application.

An EnerGuide home evaluation is a comprehensive service provided by an energy advisor to assess your home’s energy performance and determine which areas of your home can be improved to help lower your utility bills and make your home more comfortable. An energy advisor will complete a site visit, including a “blower door test” to measure air leakage, talk to you about concerns about the home, renovation plans, priority areas, and rebates and create an energy model of your home. You will receive a report with customized and prioritized energy efficiency recommendations. If you are planning to do any other upgrades (e.g. windows, insulation, solar PV, etc.), mention these to your energy advisor so they can include it in their modeling. The evaluation serves to confirm the home’s heating system before contractor work takes place and also gives the homeowner valuable information about other upgrades they could undertake to achieve energy savings and better comfort.

If you have completed a pre-upgrade EnerGuide home evaluation on or after April 1, 2024, you may use this report for the purposes of the financing program, provided no energy retrofit has been started since then. You will need to send a copy of the EnerGuide Renovation Upgrade Report to the program administration.

You can use the CleanBC Find an Energy Advisor Search Tool to find a registered Energy Advisor operating in your area. Different energy advisor companies may charge different rates for their service. Participants are encouraged to contact multiple advisors to compare prices.

The program will cover the cost of a deposit of up to 25% of the total retrofit cost (to a maximum of $5,000). 

Loan applications will be accepted between April 1 to May 15, 2025.  Following the intake period, the City of Nanaimo and the Program Administrator (City Green Solutions) will confirm applicant eligibility and score applications based on the program scoring criteria.  Applicants will learn in late May/early June if their application has been accepted.  Applicants that have been accepted into the program, will be asked to sign a petition to Council to establish a local service area to support the loan.  This is a good time to get started on the pre-retrofit requirements, including getting their pre-EnerGuide Assessment and getting contractor quotes.  The City will establish the local service area bylaw necessary to support the program in July.  Once the bylaw is adopted, the applicants will be asked to sign the loan agreement, select their contractor, and begin the work.  The applicant will then start paying back the loan through their taxes over 10 years, in the following tax year.