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Energy-efficient renovation of an apartment building: the construction industry promises discounts on blocks of houses
Photo: Jochen Tack / IMAGO
On Tuesday, the European Parliament approved a directive on renovation requirements that are intended to help the EU meet its climate goals.
The energy consumption of residential buildings is expected to fall by an average of 16 percent by 2030 and by 20 to 22 percent by 2035.
For non-residential buildings, the regulations require 16 percent of the least energy efficient buildings to be renovated by 2030 and 26 percent by 2033.
The project is based on a proposal from the EU Commission.
She presented the draft directive almost two years ago because, according to her, buildings are responsible for around 40 percent of energy consumption and around a third of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU.
If houses are better insulated or modern heating systems are used, this can reduce energy requirements and thus reduce energy costs and environmental impact.
In December, EU parliamentarians and the EU states also involved agreed on the new law.
Now the vote in the EU Parliament follows.
What homeowners need to know now:
Will I be forced to renovate my house?
According to EU chief negotiator Ciarán Cuffe, there are basically no obligations for individual buildings.
The specific impact the requirements have on homeowners and the economy depends primarily on how Germany implements them.
Federal Construction Minister Clara Geywitz also assured SPIEGEL that no one would be forced to do anything: “We understand.
Climate protection needs acceptance.
We prevented the obligation to renovate single- and multi-family houses," said Geywitz.
A building is not something abstract, but rather a home for people.
Each one is built differently and is heated differently.
"A compulsion to one-fits-all would have led to social upheavals that cannot be justified by protecting the climate."
The Federal Association of the German Construction Industry announced that the federal government would face a major challenge.
It still needs to be clarified in advance which buildings need to be renovated and when.
This is important for construction companies in order to be able to plan.
The requirement that energy consumption in residential buildings must decrease by 16 percent by 2030 and by at least 20 percent by 2035 is an overarching goal.
This means that the goal will also be achieved if buildings that are already well insulated are raised to an even better standard.
However, a good half of the savings should be achieved by renovating buildings with the worst energy efficiency.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said that the need for implementation would be examined.
The climate goals will be met by including entire neighborhoods and not every individual building.
Is the regulation now being voted on a compromise?
The EU Parliament had originally envisaged a concrete requirement for renovation, according to the motto “Worst First”: the worst buildings should have been modernized first.
All properties should achieve at least energy efficiency class E by 2030 and class D by 2033.
Parliament had already voted for this in mid-March - going further than a proposal from the EU Commission, which previously only wanted to make class F mandatory for all buildings by 2030.
The federal government also initially advocated for the strictest possible EU regulations and demanded that renovation be required for specifically named buildings.
After the devastating response to the German heating law, people adopted the line that gives the nation states extensive leeway.
However, critics complain that the climate policy benefits of the directive are practically neutralized.
The German Business Initiative for Energy Efficiency (Deneff) calls the EU institutions' deal "provisional."
It is an “important, albeit insufficient, step in the right direction.”
The level of ambition would fall far short of what is necessary to achieve the climate goals.
Many experts simply believe that the climate goals are not achievable without renovation obligations.
Will my house lose value due to the new law?
This also depends on how Germany implements the directive.
Kai Warnecke, President of the Haus & Grund owners' association, considers the plan to be very ambitious: 50 percent of the savings should be achieved through work on particularly poorly insulated buildings.
This will financially overwhelm many owners.
If the federal government introduces minimum standards that all buildings must meet, the association believes there is a risk of a significant loss in value for numerous properties.
It sounded completely different in December.
At the time, the lobbyist described the compromise as a “good result.”
A massive decline in value, loss of assets and numerous distressed house sales could have been averted.
Warnecke considers regulatory measures to be rather counterproductive anyway.
"A CO₂ pricing with a return of the income to the citizens in the form of climate money would be the simplest, cheapest and most effective way."
How expensive will the project be?
According to Haus & Grund, 15 percent of the most inefficient buildings in Germany correspond to around 2.4 million residential buildings.
The basis for this statement are figures from the Working Group for Contemporary Building from 2022.
Even a partial modernization of these buildings could cost around 17.2 billion euros per year.
By 2030, this corresponds to a total expenditure of almost 140 billion euros.
On average it is almost 60,000 euros per building.
According to the law, EU states should take measures to ensure that people who are financially worse off have access to support.
EU chief negotiator Cuffe said: "The member states must make EU funds available to households in need."
The construction industry promises lower costs if apartment blocks could be renovated as a whole.
If a larger number of apartments and houses are renovated at the same time, economies of scale could be achieved.
At the same time, the industry criticizes the fact that the requirements of the project make new buildings more expensive.
The law hardly provided any impetus to alleviate the current housing construction crisis in Germany.
Are there any exceptions?
Yes.
According to the EU Parliament, agricultural and listed buildings can be exempt from the new regulations.
Member States can also exempt buildings from obligations if they are uneconomical to renovate.
The same applies to buildings that are protected because of their special architectural or historical value.
Churches and other places of worship can also be exempt from the requirements.
According to the EU Commission, EU states can, for example, also exempt holiday homes from their obligations.
What further measures are planned?
By 2040, oil or gas heaters are expected to virtually disappear from the range of heating engineers.
Parliament announced that the EU states would also have to stop subsidies for heating using fossil fuels such as oil or gas from 2025.
However, incentives for hybrid systems, such as a combination of fossil heating and a heat pump, should still be possible.
In addition, solar systems must be gradually installed on public buildings and non-residential buildings from 2027, provided this is technically, economically and functionally feasible.
In addition, from 2030 onwards, only buildings should be built that do not emit greenhouse gases from fossil fuels on site.
According to the commission, exceptions are possible.
mik/dpa