Building an Environmentally Friendly or Lifetime Home

You may apply for a loan if you are building a permanent residence and construction work has not yet started. The loan cannot be used for refinancing.

If a garage is completed as part of the housing project, it may be included in the loan. The loan is also available for projects that involve converting an existing building for residential use.

Whether you are eligible for a loan, and how much you can borrow, depends on your financial situation. You must have sufficient income to service the loan while still having money available for other expenses.

You may apply for a loan of up to 90 per cent of the construction costs. You must provide the remaining 10 per cent as equity.

Try the loan calculator

Before applying, we recommend using our loan calculator. It will give you an indication of how much you may be able to borrow. The exact amount will not be determined until you have submitted an application and it has been assessed by the Housing Bank.

In some rural municipalities, the market value of newly built homes is often lower than the construction cost. This creates a risk that the property may have to be sold at a loss in the future, a risk that private banks are not always willing to accept.

If you have sufficient repayment capacity, the Housing Bank may accept a higher loan-to-value ratio for homes built in rural municipalities than would normally be permitted elsewhere in the country.

• The home must not contain high thresholds or other physical barriers, either indoors or outside.
• All essential living functions must be located on the entrance level, including the entrance area, kitchen and living room, bedroom and bathroom/toilet.
• It must be possible to install welfare technology and smart-home solutions at a later stage.

In addition, the home must include a separate bedroom with sufficient space for a double bed and wheelchair turning space. The living room must be at least as large as the bedroom. There must be an internal storage room of at least 3 m², and the bathroom must have space for a washing machine and dryer.

Further details, example layouts and exemptions can be found in Chapter 2.4 of the guide (Norwegian), as well as in the minimum requirements set out in the Building Technical Regulations (TEK17) (Norwegian).

To qualify for a loan, the home must meet at least three of the following five environmental criteria:

1. Building products must not contain more than 0.1 per cent by weight of substances included on the environmental authorities’ priority list of hazardous substances.
2. At least 70 per cent by weight of construction waste must be source-separated for buildings larger than 100 m², and at least 80 per cent for buildings larger than 300 m². The waste must also be delivered to an approved waste facility or sent for direct recycling.
3. The home must be designed so that it can be adapted without major structural alterations, and all rooms must continue to satisfy requirements for habitable space. In addition, one of the following conditions must be met: (a) at least one room can be divided into two rooms; (b) two rooms can be combined into one; or (c) it must be possible to establish a self-contained unit with its own bathroom and kitchen facilities.
4. At least ten different building products must have environmental documentation (EPD, Nordic Swan Ecolabel or EU Ecolabel). Each product must account for at least 25 per cent of the area, volume or weight of a building element. Eligible building elements include foundations, load-bearing structures, external walls, internal walls, floor structures, ground floors and roofs.
5. Fossil fuels must not be used for heating or drying during construction.

As an alternative to meeting these environmental criteria, you may qualify for a loan if the home has:

• Nordic Swan Ecolabel certification; or
• a BREEAM-NOR rating of Very Good, Excellent or Outstanding.

As a general rule, the home must not exceed the following internal floor area (BRA-i) limits:

• Detached house: maximum 200 m², including internal storage.
• Detached house with a secondary dwelling unit: maximum total area of 250 m². The main dwelling may not exceed 200 m², and the secondary dwelling may not exceed 80 m².

Exceptions to the Floor Area Limits

In certain cases, the Housing Bank may accept homes with a larger floor area. This may be relevant, for example, where a member of the household has a disability requiring additional space, or where a large family needs a larger home.

Based on the information you provide in your application, you may be asked to upload documentation relating to your financial circumstances, such as equity and debt.

You will also need to upload the following documents:

• Planning permission or commencement approval from the municipality
• Elevation, section and floor plans
• Site plan
• Building specification
• Contract or agreement with the contractor
• Ground lease agreement, if the plot is leasehold

If you are applying on the basis of flexibility in the floor plan, this flexibility must be shown in the floor plans and described in the building specification.

Housing Bank will only provide a loan if construction work has not yet started. At the same time, you must begin construction within six months of the loan being approved.

Apply for a loan (knapp)

If you would like to submit your application on paper, you can download and complete the application form and send it, together with the required supporting documents, to the Housing Bank.

You may submit the application through our digital submission service or send it by ordinary post to:

• Husbanken, Postboks 1404, 8002 Bodø.

Download the application form

Loan application for private individuals – Bokmål (PDF in Norwegian)

Download the supplementary form

Information about the building project – Bokmål (PDF in Norwegian)

We will assess your application as soon as possible. Processing times vary between three and six weeks, depending on the number of applications awaiting review.

If any documentation is missing, processing may take longer.

You can log in to submit additional documents, view documents you have already submitted, or notify us of any changes to your application.

If the Housing Bank approves your application, we will send a loan offer to your digital mailbox. The loan offer letter will also contain information about the next steps in the process, including signing requirements, deadlines and any additional documents we require from you.

As a condition of the loan offer, you must begin construction within six months. During the construction period, you may use a construction loan from a private bank.

Once the building has been completed and the municipality has issued either an occupancy permit or a completion certificate, you may apply for the loan to be disbursed. The process is described in the loan offer letter.

After the Housing Bank has processed your request for disbursement, we will send you a promissory note/loan agreement, which must be signed by all borrowers. The loan will be disbursed once the Housing Bank has received and approved all required documentation. The Housing Bank may carry out an inspection before releasing the funds.