The SEAI door grant for landlords and rental properties

Nearly everything written about the SEAI Windows and Doors grant assumes you live in the house you are upgrading. That assumption is wrong, and it is costing landlords money.

The scheme is open to landlords, holiday home owners, Approved Housing Bodies, registered charities and companies. It is not means tested and it is not restricted to owner occupiers.

What you can actually claim

€800 per external door, capped at two doors per property. So €1,600 per house is the ceiling on doors.

The window grant sits alongside it and scales by property type:

| Property type | Windows | Doors | Combined | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Detached | €4,000 | €1,600 | €5,600 | | Semi-detached or end of terrace | €3,000 | €1,600 | €4,600 | | Mid-terrace | €1,800 | €1,600 | €3,400 | | Apartment | €1,500 | €1,600 | €3,100 |

The cap is per property, not per landlord. Ten mid-terrace rentals is ten separate claims.

The five conditions

1. The property was built and occupied before 2011 and has an MPRN. Extensions built after 1 January 2011 are excluded.
2. You are replacing inefficient external doors. Single leaf external doors only — internal, garage, patio and French doors do not count.
3. Insulation must meet the Heat Loss Indicator threshold of 2.3 or lower after the works. This is driven mostly by walls and attic, not by the new doors. If the property is starting from poor insulation, doors alone will not get it across the line.
4. A post-works BER assessment is required. SEAI part funds this separately.
5. The work must be done by a contractor on the SEAI register. This is the one that catches people out. An unregistered tradesperson kills the claim even if the products meet specification.

That last point deserves emphasis if you manage properties at scale. The cheapest quote is worthless if the installer is not registered — you lose €800 per door to save perhaps a couple of hundred.

What it looks like across a portfolio

Take five mid-terrace rentals, front door only:

• 5 doors × €800 = €4,000 in grants
• Front and back door on each: 10 × €800 = €8,000

Add windows on the same properties and the mid-terrace window grant of €1,800 each takes the total past €17,000. The windows grant is a once-off entitlement per property, so there is no second attempt later for the same house — worth planning before you replace anything in stages.

Timing

Works carried out from 27 January 2026 are retrospectively eligible. Anything before that date is not covered.

Apply to SEAI before works begin and wait for the formal grant offer to issue. Starting installation before the offer arrives can void the claim. Payment lands four to eight weeks after a successful claim, and the full cycle from accepting a quote to money in the account is typically ten to fourteen weeks.

The specification question

Ask for the U value in writing on every quote. The SEAI technical specification calls for high performance units, and plenty of products marketed as energy efficient do not actually clear the threshold. A registered contractor will specify correctly, but you want it documented either way — it is the paperwork that supports the claim.

One more thing that catches almost everyone: ventilation. Old draughty doors and windows ventilate a property whether you like it or not. Replace them with airtight units across a whole house and you can run into condensation and air quality problems. That matters more in a rental, where you are not the one who notices the first patch of mould. Any competent survey factors it in.

Where to start

If you manage properties and have not looked at this, the fastest way to see what you are entitled to is to check the BER advisory report on each property. Walls and attic rated "Good" or "Very Good" usually means you are already over the line without spending anything on insulation first.

Then get quotes with the U value stated, from an installer you have verified on the SEAI register.