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Improving the energy efficiency of the existing residential building stock has been identified as a key policy aim in many countries. The purpose of this paper is to review the extant literature on investment decisions in domestic energy efficiency and presents a model that is both grounded in microeconomic theory and empirically tractable.

This study develops a modified and extended version of an existing microeconomic model to embed the retrofit investment decision in a residential property market context, taking into account tenants’ willingness to pay and cost-reducing synergies. A simple empirical test of the link between energy efficiency measures and housing market dynamics is then conducted.

The empirical data analysis for England indicates that where house prices are low, energy efficiency measures tend to increase the value of a house more in relative terms compared to higher-priced regions. Second, where housing markets are tight, landlords and sellers will be successful even without investing in energy efficiency measures. Third, where wages and incomes are low, the potential gains from energy savings make up a larger proportion of those incomes compared to more affluent regions. This, in turn, acts as a further incentive for an energy retrofit. Finally, the UK government has been operating a subsidy scheme which allows all households below a certain income threshold to have certain energy efficiency measures carried out for free. In regions, where a larger proportion of households are eligible for these subsidies,the authors also expect a larger uptake.

While the financial metrics of retrofit measures are by now well understood, most of the existing studies tend to view these investments in isolation, not as part of a larger bundle of considerations by landlords and owners of how energy retrofits might influence a property’s rent, price and appreciation rate. In this paper, the authors argue that establishing this link is crucial for a better understanding of the retrofit investment decision.

This paper aims to develop a forecasting tool for the automatic assessment of both environmental and economic benefits resulting from low-carbon investments in the real estate sector, especially when applied in large building stocks. A set of four artificial neural networks (NNs) is created to provide a fast and reliable estimate of the energy consumption in buildings due to heating, hot water, cooling and electricity, depending on some specific buildings’ characteristics, such as geometry, orientation, climate or technologies.

The assessment of the building’s energy demand is performed comparing the as-is status (pre-retrofit) against the design option (post-retrofit). The authors associate with the retrofit investment the energy saved per year, and the net monetary saving obtained over the whole cost after a predetermined timeframe. The authors used a NN approach, which is able to forecast the buildings’ energy demand due to heating, hot water, cooling and electricity, both in the as-is and in the design stages. The design stage is the result of a multiple attribute optimization process.

The approach here developed offers the opportunity to manage energy retrofit interventions on wide property portfolios, where it is necessary to handle simultaneously a large number of buildings without it being technically feasible to achieve a very detailed level of analysis for every property of a large portfolio.

Among the major accomplishments of this research, there is the creation of a methodology that is not excessively data demanding: the collection of data for building energy simulations is, in fact, extremely time-consuming and expensive, and this NN model may help in overcoming this problem. Another important result achieved in this study is the flexibility of the model developed. The case study the authors analysed was referred to one specific stock, but the results obtained have a more widespread importance because it ends up being only a matter of input-data entering, while the model is perfectly exportable in other contexts.

Most of the European apartment blocks are rental units of which the majority needs major refurbishments in upcoming years to achieve climate goals. On the other hand, it is still difficult for property owners to evaluate the profitability of energetic retrofitting investments. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the situation by forming a standardized framework and tool to calculate profitability of energy efficiency investments throughout Europe.

From a European perspective, several different areas of interest (technical, legal, institutional and financial) have been screened to develop an extensive compendium. This has been performed by literature research and several national surveys. Based on these findings, an online-based tool for profitability calculation has been developed to support the decision-making process of each individual, regardless his knowledge on energy efficiency.

This paper provides a short overview on main investment barriers in Germany. It is found that both market conditions and information deficits harm energy efficiency investments. Frequently, the decision-making process is found difficult due to inflexible regulations and lack of knowledge. This dramatically reduces market incentives that are already in place. Most often, the investor user dilemma is seen as the main investment obstacle. In this context, transparency and reliability are found to trigger energy-efficient investments.

Findings are used to identify best practice examples and to assess their transferability to other markets and countries. Innovative solutions have been extracted to improve the overall investment climate.

The paper contributes to a sound foundation for energy-related investments and the fulfillment of EU reduction targets.

The purpose of this study is to examine how households opt for their loan’s duration when it comes to energy efficiency retrofits (EERs). The primary focus is on the time horizon that these types of EERs will provide benefits to the households.

This study examines the second wave of the largest EER support program in Greece in recent years. The authors exploit an idiosyncrasy of the support program which offered interest-free loans. The baseline sample of this study includes approximately 18,000 households awarded the support and opted for a loan. To provide robustness and complement the analysis, the authors also use data from 38,000 households that were awarded support from the first wave of the EER program.

This study finds that EER investments that are likely to deliver longer-term benefits, in the form of energy savings, are positively associated with longer duration. This finding implies that households view such EERs as long-term investments that will consistently provide benefits in the future, thereby tolerating a longer period of incurring the inconvenience of paying monthly installments.

This study posits that an EER can be perceived by the household as an investment that saves money in the long term because of more efficient energy use. To this end, the authors bring forward the duration of the benefits accrued to the household as a driving factor to the household’s decision over the length of the loan.

This study expands on prior literature that has focused on consumer and loans for durables (e.g. cars) by examining EERs. However, EERs are different, as they can save households money in future periods. In addition, house EERs are at the forefront of energy policies and the design of future support programs at the epicenter of several initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the risks associated with green retrofit projects in Sri Lanka in order to develop a risk responsive framework.

The survey method under the quantitative approach was selected as the research methodology as this research is required evaluating the risks associated with green retrofit projects. Both preliminary survey and the main questionnaire survey were conducted to collect the data. The survey data were evaluated and analysed by using mode value as a descriptive statistical analysis technique, and the risk rating matrix.

The overall results of risk assessment deliberated that there are ten “critical” risk factors, such as construction cost, inflation, energy saving uncertainty, warranty risk, delay in project completion, productivity and quality risks, requirement of permits and their approval, design changes, damage to structure or property and procurement delay influencing green retrofitting. Finally, a risk responsive framework was developed by proposing suitable strategies for mitigating the risks associated with green retrofitting.

The developed framework can be used as a basis to mitigate the risks associated with green retrofitting projects. An abundant upgrade of existing high-rise buildings into green can be reached.

A little attention paid on green retrofitting and the absence of proper risk management strategy for green retrofit projects in current practice have made this research a paramount need and a focal point.

A framework for the successful implementation of energy retrofit projects in all settings, including those found within some non-profit organizations, is proposed. Strategies for overcoming common challenges along with experiences gained through a real-life case study of a multi-facility retrofit project were researched. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This research incorporates strategies identified in existing literature with a variety of techniques and includes information from a detailed case study involving the retrofit of multiple buildings within a public park. Combined research strategies and real-life experience through the case study are used to develop a framework for recommended framework to analyze the completion of retrofit projects.

Common obstacles encountered by energy retrofit projects in the USA and Europe were identified. The retrofit case also experienced these challenges in varying degrees. Application of these practices was implemented and applied to each specific situation within the project and documented for analysis.

Current research tends to be focused on the implementation of energy efficient solutions as justified by a quick rate of return and long term savings. However, few projects in not-for-profit situations where a grant or donation is the funding source, and ROI is not measured from a traditional financial standpoint, have been researched.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a tool that supports an investment strategy aimed at improving the energy performance of existing buildings. It is particularly aimed at large building portfolios, such as encountered on university and corporate campuses, where typically a plethora of potential refurbishment interventions are candidates for a greening effort.

The investment optimization strategy is implemented in a web‐based software tool. Under a chosen financial constraint and investment time horizon, the tool empowers campus facility management to make the difficult “greening” decisions as part of their continuous building commissioning. The tool calculates and accepts user data that reflect different types of risks, posed by uncertainties in investment costs, energy performance, and energy cost scenarios. In addition, decision makers (DMs) can set different investment priorities, reflecting their financial risk attitude and commitment to “greenness”.

The tool helps DMs determine the best investment options from a set of available energy efficiency improvement options in the light of expected long range energy costs. It will enable the choice of the optimal mix of technologies and buildings within a given budget limit and predict the long‐term monetary as well as “green” return on investment.

The tool has been tested on a portfolio of campus buildings, but needs further validation with a larger set of buildings in a real life campus management setting. The tool can become a trusted instrument in the hands of portfolio managers faced with the problem to select the optimal mix of technologies, and buildings within the given budget. It should be noted that “investment returns (IRs)” and “commitment to greenness” are just two elements considered in the broader decision making framework of portfolio energy management.

The investment tool can provide an essential instrument for campus managers who are faced with the task to refurbish buildings in their portfolio to increase their energy performance. In the current business culture of campus management, the decision to investment in energy savings needs to be weighed against competing initiatives that target greener campuses. The target of the research was to develop an instrument that can help DMs to verify rapidly what can be achieved if a budget line item of, say $10 million would be added to the campus budget for energy performance improvements.

The research output from this paper is valuable for continued efforts in the development of indicators that measure “IRs” and “commitment to greenness”. Other elements that impact portfolio decision making can be identified in a common decision framework of which the investment tool will become an integral part over time.

Estimates show that close to 90% of the buildings we will need in 2050 are already built and occupied. The increase in the existing building stock has affected energy consumption thereby negatively impacting the environment. The purpose of this paper is to assess determinants of sustainable upgrade of existing buildings through the adoption and application of sustainable technologies. The study also ranks sustainable technologies adopted by the professionals who participated in the survey with an in-built case study.

As part of the overall methodology, a detailed literature review on the nature and characteristics of sustainable upgrade and the sustainable technologies adopted was undertaken. A survey questionnaire with an in-built case study was designed to examine all the sustainable technologies adopted to improve energy consumption in Australia. The survey was administered to sustainability consultants, architects, quantity surveyors, facility managers and engineers in Australia.

The results show a total of 24 technologies which are mostly adopted to improve energy consumption in existing buildings. A factor analysis shows the main components as: lighting and automation, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HAVC) systems and equipment, envelope, renewable energy and passive technologies.

The findings bridge the gap in the literature on the adoption and application of sustainable technologies to upgrade existing buildings. The technologies can be adopted to reduce the excessive energy consumption patterns in existing buildings.

The cost-optimal analysis is not able to address the multi-dimensionality of the decision according to the new European objectives and International sustainable development goals in the field of the nearly-zero energy building (NZEB) design. The purpose of this paper is to study the role of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) for guiding energy investment decisions.

The paper explores the Preference ranking organization method for enrichment of evaluations II (PROMETHEE II) application to support the project of transforming a rural building into a NZEB. The evaluation provides an estimate of the effects of alternative energy efficiency measures, involving energy consumption, life cycle costs, carbon emissions, property value and indoor comfort criteria. The study performs a multi-actors analysis in order to understand how different consumers' point of views can influence the final choice of the best investment. Furthermore, a multi-site analysis explores the spatial variation of NZEB building appreciation in the real estate market.

The PROMETHEE II-based model ranks 16 alternative solutions for the NZEB according to energy, economic and extra-economic criteria. The multi-actors analysis highlights the configuration of the NZEB building that best meets the needs of different end-users, respecting the European directives and national standards. The multi-site analysis concludes that location does not change users' appreciation and not influence the output for the best solution.

The MCDA occurs as a support tool that helps to optimize the preliminary design phase of NZEB through the exploration of the optimal solution considering crucial criteria in the energy and environmental and real estate market rules.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the cross-sectoral collaboration between conservation and economic appraisal, and to process a financial analysis for private owners of a built heritage.

The methodology applied addresses the financial analysis of restoration through a discounted cash flow analysis, together with a life cycle costing. Costs and revenues are both analysed in this paper. Some energy-saving measures are applied to cut running costs and decrease the energy required by the building, using as reference the “Guidelines for improving energy efficiency in cultural heritage” drafted by MiBACT, which considers the respect of restoration principles. In order to increase revenues, part of the building is rented. The attractiveness of the investment opportunity is valued through the calculation of the net present value of cash flows, the payback period and the internal rate of return.

The paper offers a simple strategy for the planning of cost-revenues, preventively allowing verification if the conservation is economically feasible and if the owners can afford the operation. The strategic planning will give the owners the chance of maintaining the property of their building and achieve a proper restoration on it.

The novelty of the paper is the study of cooperation between conservation and economic valuation, but also the focus on a specific portion of twentieth-century heritage, the war-wounded houses, which represent a widespread patrimony, on which it is not clear how to operate yet.