Better Homes Burlington: Heat Pump Loans Explained

In short

Better Homes Burlington was a City of Burlington pilot that offered interest-free loans of up to $10,000 for an air-source heat pump, limited to 20 homeowners. As of October 1, 2026 the City's program pages are offline and no application is open. The live money for a Burlington heat pump is the provincial Home Renovation Savings Program rebate.

How much you can get

City of Burlington heat pump loan (2023 pilot) Up to $10,000, interest-free, maximum of 20 loans
Loan applications as of October 1, 2026 None open that we could find; the City's program pages are offline
Repayment term and fees for the pilot loan Not stated in the City's releases; confirm with the City
Provincial heat pump rebate, gas-heated Burlington home $500 per ton, up to $2,000
Provincial heat pump rebate, home heated by electricity, oil, propane or wood $1,250 per ton, up to $7,500
Toronto's home energy loan program Not available to Burlington residents, per the City

Who qualifies

The pilot was open to Burlington homeowners buying and installing an air-source heat pump.
It was capped at 20 approved loans, with intake set to run from September 2023 until January unless the cap was reached sooner.
No intake is posted today, so nobody can qualify for the City loan until Burlington republishes the program.
The provincial rebate is open to homeowners in a detached, semi-detached, row or townhouse, or a mobile home on a permanent foundation.
For that rebate you must be an Enbridge Gas customer heating with a gas furnace or boiler, or be on the Ontario grid and heat with electricity, oil, propane or wood.
New builds are excluded from the provincial rebate: the program defines that as a home occupied for six months or less.
A participating contractor has to file the pre-installation application and have it approved before the heat pump is installed.

Homeowners find this program through a 2023 news story or a neighbour who got one of the loans, then cannot find the application. Here is what the City published, what its website shows now, and where the money for a Burlington heat pump comes from in the meantime.

Is the Better Homes Burlington loan open in 2026?

Not that we can find. On October 1, 2026 the short address the City advertised, burlington.ca/betterhomes, returned a page-not-found error, and so did the program's Home Upgrades page. The City's current Energy and Buildings page lists incentives from the province, Enbridge Gas and Save on Energy, and names no City loan.

That is an absence, and we are reading it as one. We found no closure notice either, so email betterhomes@burlington.ca, the contact the City published, before ruling it out completely. Do not sign a heat pump contract on the assumption that a City loan will cover part of it.

What the City's heat pump loan pilot offered

The pilot paired a small pool of municipal loans with staff who helped homeowners find rebates. The City's own news releases set out the terms.

Loan size: up to $10,000 per home, interest-free.
Purpose: the purchase and installation of an air-source heat pump.
Volume: a maximum of 20 loans, because it was a pilot.
Timing: applications opened in September 2023 and were to run until January unless the 20 approvals came first.
Support: City staff acted as a guide to rebates and grants from businesses and other levels of government.
Design: Burlington developed the program with the Centre for Climate Change Management at Mohawk College, with feasibility funding approved by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

A later City update said that, after a successful pilot in 2023, a limited number of the same loans were available again. Neither release gives a repayment term, so we will not quote one.

How a City loan stacks with the Home Renovation Savings Program

A loan and a rebate do different jobs, so the two were never in competition. The loan spread the cost of the install over time; the Home Renovation Savings Program rebate lowers the cost itself. City staff pointed pilot applicants toward outside rebates for exactly that reason.

With no City loan on offer, the provincial rebate is what a Burlington homeowner can count on today. A gas-heated house is paid $500 per ton of heat pump capacity to a maximum of $2,000. A house heated with electricity, oil, propane or wood is paid $1,250 per ton to a maximum of $7,500.

One rule decides whether you see that money. Your contractor's pre-installation application must be approved before the heat pump goes in, and the program states that installations done before approval are not eligible.

What a Burlington heat pump costs without the loan

A 3-ton cold-climate heat pump installs for $9,500–$15,000 in most ducted houses here, before any rebate. Across other sizes and layouts the numbers look like this:

Cold-climate air-source heat pump, whole home, ducted: roughly $6,000–$16,000 installed before rebates.
Single-zone ductless unit for one floor or an addition: $4,000–$7,000 installed.
Provincial rebate on a gas-heated home: $500 per ton, to a ceiling of $2,000.

The gap between those figures is what the City loan was meant to bridge. Today a lender bridges it instead, and we arrange that through our lending partners with no prepayment penalty.

Which Burlington homes the loan was aimed at

The City's material singled out propane, oil and electrically heated homes as the ones with the most to gain from a heat pump. In Burlington those are mostly the rural lots around Lowville and Kilbride, where natural gas mains do not reach every property. Those same homes fall in the higher provincial tier, so the rebate does more of the work there.

In the gas-served subdivisions closer to the lake, a hybrid setup that keeps the furnace usually makes more sense, and electrical capacity becomes the question to settle first. Our page on Burlington Hydro rebates and service capacity covers that side.

The City of Hamilton's program is a separate one with separate rules, covered on our Better Homes Hamilton page, and every other live program is on the Ontario HVAC rebates hub. For a quote that shows the rebate and the financing as separate lines, see heat pump installation in Burlington or contact us.

How ZK Mechanical helps

Check the City's site and its program contact before any municipal loan is written into your budget.
Size the heat pump with a heat-loss calculation, since the provincial rebate is paid per ton.
File the pre-installation application and wait for the approval before we book the install.
Quote the rebate and the financing as separate lines, never as a discount that depends on an approval nobody can promise.
Check panel capacity early and say so if a hybrid design avoids a service upgrade.

Frequently asked questions

Can I still apply for a Better Homes Burlington loan?

We could not find a way to apply on October 1, 2026. The City's program address and its Home Upgrades page both return page-not-found errors, and the City's Energy and Buildings page lists provincial and utility programs only. The pilot was limited to 20 loans. Email the City's program contact to confirm before you rule it in or out.

Was the Better Homes Burlington loan a rebate?

No. It was a loan from the City of Burlington, interest-free and up to $10,000, toward buying and installing an air-source heat pump. A loan is repaid; a rebate is not. The City's news releases do not state the repayment term, which is one more reason to get the terms from the City in writing if the program returns.

Can Burlington residents use Toronto's home energy loan instead?

No. The City of Burlington's Energy and Buildings page links to Toronto's BetterHomesTO site for retrofit information and states that Burlington residents do not qualify for its home energy loan program. Municipal retrofit loans are tied to the municipality that lends the money, so a Burlington address needs a Burlington program or ordinary financing.

Does the provincial heat pump rebate need a home energy assessment?

No. The Home Renovation Savings Program lists heat pumps among the upgrades that do not require a home energy assessment. What it does require is a participating contractor and an approved pre-installation application before the equipment is installed. Insulation, air sealing and window rebates sit on a separate path that starts with an assessment.

Is a heat pump worth doing in Burlington without the City loan?

It depends on the fuel you are leaving. Homes on propane, oil or electric heat around Lowville and Kilbride get the higher rebate tier and the largest running-cost change. Gas-heated homes get a maximum of $2,000 back and usually do best with a hybrid system that keeps the furnace for the coldest nights.

Official sources

All Ontario HVAC rebates Burlington Hydro rebates and programs HVAC financing Heat pump installation in Burlington All rebate programs