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Decarbonising the housing stock is one of the largest challenges in the built environment today, which is getting the attention not only from policymakers but also from social housing corporations, financial organisations and users. In line with the international Paris-Climate-Change-Conference 2015, Dutch cities and housing associations have embraced this challenge with the ambitions to become carbon neutral in 2050. To reach such goals, both the rate and depth of renovation need to increase. Several technical solutions to eliminate the energy demand in dwelling have been developed and tested. Nevertheless, the intake rate of deep retrofitting is low. Despite recent developments, there are still significant barriers related to financing, lack of information and user acceptance. To address those barriers, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between energy efficiency upgrades and the cost of living.

Focusing on walk-up apartments in the Netherlands, a framework of refurbishment measures that affect the energy efficiency was identified, and their performance was calculated. Furthermore, the rental price adjustment was estimated, taking into account the refurbishment investment and the exploitation cost of the renovated dwellings.

The comparison of the energy use and rental price for the different options demonstrated how the different renovation measures affect the energy cost, the energy use, rent and cost of living. The tenants are more likely to accept the solutions that take into account the total cost of living and sustainability benefits. The study gives a holistic standpoint to the issue of energy upgrades, by quantifying the effect of the potential measures for the whole exploitation period. It has shown the potential of the different interventions to improve the performance and living conditions, without necessarily increasing the total cost of living.

Such results aim at supporting the decision making between the stakeholders, primarily housing associations and tenants.

The importance of the study is that it gives a holistic standpoint to the issue of energy upgrades, by quantifying the effect of the potential measures for the whole exploitation period. The cost, as a key, if not the more most decisive, issue, is put into perspective in relation to the benefit, in order to give a direction to the renovation design and arguments for the stakeholders’ dialogue. The approach of the study goes beyond cost-optimality of measures and investigated the relation between energy upgrades and cost, as a way to evaluate design variation and address the lack of information barrier in renovations. Moreover, it also proves that deep renovation is feasible without increasing in the total cost of living, which is a principal argument to promote renovations.

The European Commission and EU member states have prioritised the renovation of the existing housing stock as a means of achieving their energy-efficiency targets. As buildings account for 40% of Europe’s energy consumption and much of this is used in the residential sector a major breakthrough could be realized here. Despite the fact that energy saving targets have been prioritized in EU and national policy programme’s, progress is slow. The actual rate and extent of renovations are by fare not enough to achieve the targets. Although the necessity of energy savings is acknowledged by institutional investors in housing, housing associations, individual homeowners and occupants, it appears to be difficult to get sufficient support for energy efficiency renovations. The current economic situation is an additional barrier preventing large scale investments in energy renovating the housing stock.

This article connects the realisation of energy efficiency goals with the creation of jobs in the EU. The shift from new-build to renovation will have considerable effects on employment in especially the construction industry and the qualifications required by the workforce. Studies show that for every €1 million investment in the existing building stock in the form of energy renovation work, 12 to 17 new jobs could be created. Potentially this could lead to may new jobs. However, there are many uncertainties in these calculations. Are these direct or indirect jobs, what sectors would benefit, are these jobs created within the EU and what would be the net effect on the labour market? Nonetheless these uncertainties, the positive employment effects will prevail. A new and ambitious investment programme in the housing sector could not only improve the energy performance of the sector but create 100.000’s of valuable jobs at a time when these are seriously needed.

The renovation of existing building stock is seen as one the most practical ways to achieve the high energy savings targets for the built environment defined by European authorities. In France, the Grenelle environmental legislation addresses the need to renovate the building stock and specifically stresses the key role of social housing organisations. In recent years, French procurement rules have been modified in order to allow social housing organisations to make use of integrated contracts such as Design-Build-Maintain. These contracts have a greater potential to deliver energy savings in renovation projects than do traditional project delivery methods, like Design-bid-Build. This is because they facilitate collaboration between the various actors and boost their commitment to the achievement of project goals. In order to evaluate the estimated potential of such contracts to achieve energy savings, two renovation projects (carried out by two French social housing organisations) were analysed from their inception until the end of construction work. The analysis is based on written tender documents, technical evaluation reports, observations of the negotiation phase (in one of the cases) and interviews with the main actors involved. Findings show that Design-Build-Maintain contracts do indeed offer substantial energy savings. Both projects achieved higher energy targets than those initially required. Furthermore, the energy results are guaranteed by the contractor, through a system of bonuses and penalties. Other results demonstrate that, compared to previous Design-bid-Build renovation projects, these projects were completed in less time (from project inception to completion of the work) and at virtually the same cost. There has also been a substantial improvement in cooperation between the actors involved.

A research study was recently carried out at the Technical University (TU) in Delft into the renovation of office buildings in the Netherlands. Renovation is defined as follows: ‘Structural technical intervention in or on a building, by means of which the building is adapted to new functional and technical quality requirements, without the original functional purpose being changed.’ In this context, renovation must not be confused with redevelopment. In redevelopment, large parts or even the whole supporting structure may be demolished and the original functional purpose may well be changed. As a first step in the research, on the basis of the available literature, an inventory is made of the quantity (square metres of floor surface area) and the quality of the Netherlands stock of office buildings. This literature research reveals that no reliable quantitative and qualitative data about the volume of the stock are available. The research also made it clear that no data are available with respect to the number of renovation projects, the amount of money involved and the reasons for renovating offices in the Netherlands. To address this knowledge gap, the TU Delft undertook a renovation project analysis and involved a large group of principal clients commissioning projects, project developers and architects. The results presented in this paper are interesting for academics, policy makers and practitioners in and outside the Netherlands. International literature research by the author did not bring in new insights. Readers with knowledge of similar research abroad are invited to contact the author via e‐mail.

The purpose of this paper is to explain who purchases undeclared home repairs and renovations and their motives to tackle the cash-in-hand consumer culture. The conventional view has been that undeclared home repairs and renovations are sought by those consumers needing to save money and desiring a lower price. Here, this is evaluated critically.

To do so, evidence from a 2019 Eurobarometer survey involving 27,565 face-to-face interviews in 28 European countries is reported.

The finding is the need for a nuanced and variegated understanding of who purchases undeclared home repairs and renovations and why. Lower price is their sole rationale in just 25% of purchases, one of several rationales in 34% of cases and not a reason in the remaining 42% of purchases. Besides a lower price, consumers purchase undeclared not only unintentionally but also to circumvent the failings of formal sector provision in terms of its availability, speed and quality, as well as for social and redistributive rationales.

To reduce the cash-in-hand consumer culture, not only are incentives needed to persuade consumers to purchase declared along with awareness-raising campaigns about the benefits of purchasing declared services but initiatives are also needed to improve the availability, speed, reliability and quality of formal provision and to address undeclared purchases conducted for social and redistributive purposes.

This paper improves understanding of how governments can stop consumers asking “how much for cash” and reduce demand for undeclared home repair and renovation services.

Existing old building stock needs retrofit of structures and performance upgrading. Retrofit is often neglected, either lacking understanding of maintenance importance or to keep living costs low. Retrofit is inevitable. Depending on a buildings geographical location, condition or expected time of use; demolition of building or increment space is worth considering. This study looks at the economics about which is the best option: renovation and energy efficient upgrading of existing building or replacement of existing building.

Research method is case study. The same case building – size, age, existing performance as well as renovation and new performance – studied at different regions. These are (1) growing city, (2) stable city and (3) shrinking city. Life cycle cost analysis bases on payback periods. The most important input data are the rent and occupancy rate on each area.

In growing cities, both renovation and replacement of existing buildings are feasible options. In other two areas, payback periods of renovations are rather long and acceptable only if building is in own use. Often retrofit is necessary because of the poor condition of the building.

This study looks at the subject only from building owners economical point of view and ties building to its location. Life cycle assessment (energy use and greenhouse gas emissions) has analysed earlier (Nippala and Heljo, 2010).

Analysis gives the most feasible option to different regions.

This study raises the debate on how realistic it is to expect the building stock to meet the EU’s energy saving and greenhouse cut targets.

Starting with the notion that each building has an overall life cycle, the paper uses building-based and investment-based life cycles to identify likely decision points for renovations, including sustainability enhancements, and identifies patterns in sustainability decisions.

This real estate insights paper considers how commercial real estate and the built environment it creates, owns and manages impacts the sustainability of urban areas and the globe. By combining building-based and investment-based life cycles, it is possible to develop a unique “sustainability enhancement quotient” for individual buildings and the built environment for an urban area over a given time interval.

Using two life cycles allows the identification and likelihood of sustainability decision points. The same life cycles and decision points are used to consider the likely extent of such renovations. This is in addition to continuous consideration of renovations producing economic benefits in the form of lower operating costs and quick return of capital.

Useful for investment decision-making and policy design and implementation.

This is a useful tool for public and private decision making. It is suggested that the sustainability enhancement quotient may be used to design and implement policies and decisions maximising the likelihood of sustainability enhancement in an urban area's built environment.

Provides a framework for more effective sustainability decisions and public policy. The public-private interplay inherent in every building is emphasised throughout.

Original combination of existing tools.

The buildings should be designed by respecting the environmental and climatic conditions they are in and their orientation. Then, the characteristics of the building envelope (BE) play an important role in building energy consumption and user comfort. In fact, the type and material of glazing is one of the crucial parameters for BE. The transparency ratio of BE also determines the façade performance. The aim of this study is to analyze the different renovation scenarios for BE with high transparency of an educational building (EB) in hot summer weather to obtain indoor thermal comfort (ITC) for users.

The methodology includes thorough measurement of existing ITC using TESTO-440 and simulation of each retrofit scenario using DesignBuilder building energy modeling (BEM) simulation software with Energyplus to determine optimal thermal comfort. Since the study focuses on the impact of the transparent BE on summer ITC, four main scenarios, naturally ventilated (NV) façade, film-coated glass façade, replacement of glazing with opaque units, sun-controlled façade with overhang and solar shading, were simulated. The results were analyzed comparatively on both performance and cost to find the best renovation solutions.

A total of 7 different renovation scenarios were tested. Simulation results show that passive systems such as NV have limited contribution to indoor air temperature (IAT) improvement, achieving only a 4 °C reduction while offering the lowest cost. A film coating resulted in a reduction of 3–6 °C, but these applications have the highest cost and least impact on ITC. It was found that exterior coating leads to better results in film coating. Preventing and limiting the increase in IAT was achieved by reducing the transparency ratio of BE. The best results were obtained in these scenarios, and it was possible to reduce IAT by more than 10 °C. The best performance/cost value were also obtained by decreasing transparency ratio of roof and sun control.

Since the high transparency ratio has a negative impact on summer comfort, especially in hot climate zones, summer ITC was prioritized in the renovation solutions for the case building.

The study’s findings present a range of solutions for improving the ITC of highly transparent buildings. The solutions can help building managers see the differences in renovation costs and their impacts on ITC to decrease the cooling load of the existing buildings.

Holistic renovation of historic and heritage buildings involving different stakeholders has the potential to reduce environmental impact. Climate change concerns are emphasizing environmental issues of cultural built heritage leading to new policies, guidelines and methods dealing with the challenge on how to lessen the environmental impact of built heritage without damaging its cultural significance. The purpose of this paper is to review existing international and New Zealand holistic guidelines for renovation of historic and heritage buildings.

A systematic review is used to identify international projects, methods and criteria within the holistic approach. Secondly, the New Zealand context is explored and compared with best international practices.

For instance, in New Zealand one increasingly important issue is the many vacant heritage and historic buildings in provincial town centres that need action to deal with building code seismic changes. Upgrades and adaptive reuse are opportunities to make them more sustainable and climate change resilient. However, the lack of national holistic guidelines regarding the challenge of reducing environmental impact whilst keeping the heritage values is a critical gap which urgently needs to be resolved. The need is further increased within the context of the recently passed Zero Carbon Act 2019, which aims for national zero carbon emissions by 2050.

These shared responsibilities for conserving historic and heritage buildings to maintain life in provincial towns on one hand, and the need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on the other, have the potential to contribute to a sustainable development of cities and communities.

Energy use in buildings needs to be reduced to meet political goals; however, reducing energy use can conflict with heritage preservation objectives. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a method that combines quantitative and qualitative analyses of the potential of energy savings in an historic building stock. Specifically, this study examines how requirements of historic building preservation affect the energy saving potential on a building stock level.

Using the World Heritage Town of Visby, Sweden as a case study, this paper illustrates a step-by-step method as a basis for implementing energy savings techniques in an historic building stock. The method contains the following steps: categorisation of a building stock, definition of restriction levels for energy renovation scenarios and life cycle costs optimisation of energy measures in archetype buildings representing the building stock. Finally, this study analyses how different energy renovation strategies will impact heritage values and energy saving potentials for different categories of buildings.

The outcome of the study is twofold: first, the method has been tested and proven useful and second, the results from the application of the method have been used to formulate differentiated energy renovation strategies for the case study.

The study shows that it is possible to integrate techno-economic analysis with assessment of heritage values in a given building stock in order to facilitate a strategic discussion balancing policies and targets for energy savings with policies for the preservation of heritage values. The findings will contribute to sounder policy development and planning for historic building stocks.