The Estonian Business and Innovation Agency (EIS) had nearly €28 million in grants available for the reconstruction of small residential buildings.

Since the funding has strict usage rules and all work must be completed by the end of this year, the last opportunity to apply for the grant was at the end of February. While an average of 50 applications were submitted per month last year, and a third of the funds were still available at the beginning of this year, the approaching deadline spurred people into action.

In February alone, the agency received 700 applications.

"A significant number of applications were submitted — over 2,000 in total. Even on the last day before the round closed, applications continued to come in, some in the final minutes and seconds," said Kersti Saar, head of individual grants at the agency.

The grants could be used for projects such as insulating houses or installing solar panels or heat pumps.

"In partial reconstruction projects, one of the most common activities was installing a heat pump — either a ground-source or an air-to-water heat pump. Many also applied for support to insulate façades or roofs — these were the main activities in partial reconstruction. Looking at the funding decisions made so far, it's encouraging to see that applications for partial and full-scale reconstructions are roughly equal. People are increasingly realizing that a comprehensive renovation is the most reasonable approach. If a building needs repairs, it's best to do it properly all at once," Saar explained.

However, the agency's experience shows that many applicants do not fully understand the grant conditions and often submit incomplete documentation.

"The main reason applications were rejected was that documents were not submitted correctly or deficiencies in the documents were not fixed within the given deadline. Another common issue was that work had already started before the application was submitted. This means applicants did not properly review the grant conditions, and unfortunately, that means they are not eligible for support," Saar noted.

She added that interest in the final days was so high that a few hundred applicants ended up on the waiting list. Their projects can only be funded if approved applications contain errors that are not corrected in time.

Those on the waiting list have been notified, meaning that applicants who have not received such a notice are still within the available budget. Saar also reminded last-minute applicants to carefully plan their work schedules to ensure they can complete the required tasks by the deadline in order to receive the grant money.

As of now, the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency has no plans to launch a new round of small residential reconstruction grants.

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