Alpes-Maritimes grants: what the Département pays on top of MaPrimeRénov'

Most guides to French renovation grants stop at MaPrimeRénov' (the state renovation grant) and CEE (energy-supplier grants). The Alpes-Maritimes runs its own layer on top, and its largest grant reaches 25,400 EUR. It comes with a condition that rules out many readers, so that's where this guide starts.

Who can actually claim a local grant in the Alpes-Maritimes?

Owners who live in the property as their main home. The Département asks for a home "occupé à titre de résidence principale" on the date you apply. A tax notice or a home insurance policy marked as a principal residence proves it. The national rule underneath, which most local top-ups inherit from ANAH (the national housing agency), means living there at least eight months a year. You also commit to living there for three more years.

Landlords qualify if the tenant lives there as their main home. The letting commitment runs six years, and you repay one sixth of the grant for each year you fall short. Second-home owners are shut out of almost everything; the few exceptions are listed further down.

Near a band boundary? The Département deducts your annual mortgage repayments from your revenu fiscal de référence before placing you in a band, which moves some households down one.

How much does the Département 06 pay for a full energy renovation?

The scheme is the Guichet Confort Énergie 06, part of the Département's Green Deal 06 programme, which is still running. For a qualifying renovation it pays, by income band:

• Très modestes: up to 25,400 EUR
• Modestes: up to 20,400 EUR
• Intermédiaires: up to 16,600 EUR
• Supérieurs: up to 10,000 EUR

The last line is the surprise. MaPrimeRénov' pays higher-income households nothing on its single-measure (par geste) route. The Département still pays them up to 10,000 EUR.

The grant is worked out on what you pay after all other public aid, and it can be split into two applications over five years. An energy audit less than 18 months old is compulsory. It must be done by a Mon Accompagnateur Rénov' professional, and 700 EUR of its cost is covered in every band.

The work must improve energy performance by 35% and reach class D or better. If the house reaches class B, a 20% gain is enough. The building must be over 15 years old and entirely within the department: a house or village house of no more than three storeys. Ask the contractor to confirm on the devis (written quote) that they hold RGE (the state's approved-installer label) certification. The service can waive that in writing if you show no RGE firm was available to you.

How does the Alpes-Maritimes fossil-heating grant double your national aid?

Replacing an oil or gas system with a non-fossil one has its own grant. It pays up to 12,700 EUR for très modestes households and up to 5,000 EUR at the top band.

The payment equals the national aid and CEE you received, capped by band, so it roughly doubles what you secured elsewhere.

There's no minimum energy gain and no 15-year rule, but the Mon Accompagnateur Rénov' audit is still compulsory. Eligible systems are wood and pellet boilers, solar heating, air-to-water and geothermal heat pumps, low-temperature radiators, a smart thermostat and removal of the old tank.

Air-to-air heat pumps don't qualify for this grant, though they're the system most often fitted in the Alpes-Maritimes. They can count towards the renovation grant above in one case. The old system must have had no water circuit, and at least one other measure must be done at the same time.

Which Alpes-Maritimes grants have no income condition?

Four, and they're the ones to check first if your income puts you outside the national schemes:

• Solar water heating: 25% of the cost excluding tax, up to around 1,000 EUR, and capped at 300 EUR per square metre of collector. You need at least 2 m² of collectors and an RGE installer.
• Private EV charge point: 50% of the cost excluding tax, capped at 400 EUR. The installer must be IRVE-qualified (qualified to fit EV chargers), and a reinforced socket doesn't count. File within six months of the invoice.
• Charge point in a copropriété: 400 EUR per parking space, towards your share of the shared wiring. It doesn't pay for the charger itself.
• Rainwater collection tank: 50% of the cost excluding tax, up to 5,000 EUR. The tank must hold at least 3,000 litres and be buried or inside an existing structure.

Inland there's a fifth. The aide à l'amélioration de l'habitat rural pays 20% of the work, up to 1,600 EUR, to owner-occupiers in rural and mountain communes; the coastal strip is excluded. The building must be over 20 years old and the work over 500 EUR. There's no income ceiling and no RGE requirement.

What can a second-home owner on the Côte d'Azur actually claim?

Three grants, and only one pays for energy work.

• The rainwater tank grant, 50% up to 5,000 EUR. Its rules name résidences secondaires explicitly, which almost nothing else does.
• The copropriété charge point grant, 400 EUR per space. Its wording is "en résidence principale ou non", so a flat you use part of the year qualifies.
• The Cannes façade grant, if the property is in Cannes and visible from the street. There's no residence, income or age test. It pays per m² of paint, render or cleaning, capped at 8,000 EUR in standard sectors and 10,500 EUR in the Suquet, Forville, Meynadier and Bas Carnot sectors. Les Caravelles, Concorde and La Joie de Vivre get doubled rates until the end of 2028, capped at 21,000 EUR. It pays for render and paint, not energy work.

Other local top-ups are calculated on the works ANAH will subsidise, so failing the national principal-residence test loses them too. For a holiday property, CEE is the national scheme to discuss with your installer, because it doesn't ask where you live.

Why buying the equipment early costs you the Département grant

For the Département's renovation and heating grants, no work may start and no equipment may be bought until your file has been received and approved. The Pays de Grasse scheme has the same rule. The solar water heater and private charge point grants work the other way round: you claim once the work is done, within six months of the invoice.

Ordering a system and sorting the paperwork while it's delivered disqualifies you. Go in this order: audit, quote, file, decision, and only then let your contractor order anything.

Which local grants are still advertised but no longer exist?

Installer websites are slow to update, so discount these:

• Departmental solar panel aid ended on 28 February 2025. Only files with an earlier quote were paid. Green Deal 06 itself is live. Solar water heating survived; solar electricity didn't.
• Région Sud's Chèque énergie durable is no longer offered. It's missing from the region's list of current schemes.
• The 6,000 EUR Métropole Nice Côte d'Azur heat pump figure traces back to a 2022 announcement whose page no longer exists. The Métropole tops up ANAH grants but publishes no amount. Treat any figure as unverified until the Maison de l'Habitant confirms it in writing.
• Several ANAH local programmes have closed but are still promoted, including the Métropole Nice Côte d'Azur scheme and the Cannes Pays de Lérins one. Nice, Cannes, Antibes and the Sophia Antipolis belt have no live programme at all.

Two are still running. One covers the communes around Menton and the eastern border until February 2027. Another covers a defined list of streets in Grasse's historic centre until October 2027.

More on MaPrimeRénov', CEE and grants for Riviera homes

• MaPrimeRénov' explained: who qualifies and how to claim
• MaPrimeRénov' for expats and second-home owners
• CEE grants: the scheme that doesn't ask where you live
• RGE certification: the contractor qualification these grants require
• Energy decisions for second-home owners on the Côte d'Azur
• Audit énergétique: the assessment these grants require