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Low income? Ask your CPAS about the MEBAR subsidy before you buy or start works

MEBAR is a Walloon subsidy for low-income households that improve the energy use of their main home, for example new windows, insulation, a stove or a boiler. You apply through your CPAS before buying anything or starting works.

Wallonia · Subject to change

Sources checked on · next check by . Check the source before you act.

Help & subsidiesLevel 3 · UpgradeCost: €100–2,500Weeks or monthsAsk landlordUnder review

MEBAR (the Walloon energy subsidy for low-income households) helps pay for works that make your main home use energy more efficiently. The official page names, among others, replacing windows or outer doors, insulation, installing a stove, lining a chimney, and fitting a boiler or a water heater. Both tenants and owners can apply, as long as the household's income stays under a limit tied to the social integration income; the page and the CPAS give the current rules.

The order matters: go to your CPAS before you buy anything or start any work. A social worker gathers your documents and starts the file, and the CPAS sends it on to the Service public de Wallonie, which checks whether it can be accepted. If you rent and the works touch the building, such as windows or a boiler, you need your landlord's agreement before you apply. After a MEBAR subsidy you have to wait at least five years before a new application, and it must then be for a different investment.

This subsidy does not apply in the nine German-speaking municipalities, where the German-speaking Community runs its own housing and energy premiums, with higher support for low incomes; see ostbelgienlive.be.

Details

ImpactIndirect · This saves no energy by itself: it is a rule, a service, a contract, or a health or safety item. How we rate impact
Estimated savingSubsidy for works; the saving depends on the works, and the official page gives no figure. (confidence: low)
Who actsYou and your landlord
Needs landlord's agreementYes
TypeExisting service

Do this together with

Sources

  1. Demander une subvention énergie en tant que ménage à revenu modeste (Prime Mebar) (in French) · Wallonie.be (Service public de Wallonie) (official source) · checked on
    Backs: subsidy for low-income households for energy works in their main home (windows or outer doors, insulation, stove, chimney lining, boiler or water heater); go to the CPAS before any purchase or works; the social worker builds the file and the CPAS sends it to the SPW; tenants need the owner's agreement first when the works require it; at least 5 years between two applications; income limits set in relation to the social integration income; Guichet de l'Énergie and the Mebar service as contacts
    Where: démarche n° 1965, sections 'En bref' and 'En détail', and the 'Contacts' block
  2. Energieprämien: Prämiensystem für energetische Umbaumaßnahmen (in German) · Ministerium der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft Belgiens (official source) · checked on
    Backs: the German-speaking Community has been responsible for housing and energy in its nine municipalities since 2020; its own premiums are higher for households with a low income
    Where: introduction and the part on low incomes

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