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High costs: Renovating old buildings overwhelms owners

2022-02-17T15:49:39.260Z


High costs: Renovating old buildings overwhelms owners Created: 02/17/2022, 16:43 The energetic refurbishment of old residential buildings could cost several trillion euros. © Arno Burgi/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa Affordable and energy efficient at the same time? Associations criticize the excessively high requirements for the renovation of old residential buildings. There are also other ways to make


High costs: Renovating old buildings overwhelms owners

Created: 02/17/2022, 16:43

The energetic refurbishment of old residential buildings could cost several trillion euros.

© Arno Burgi/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

Affordable and energy efficient at the same time?

Associations criticize the excessively high requirements for the renovation of old residential buildings.

There are also other ways to make living more climate-neutral.

Berlin - Without alternative heating, better insulation and new windows in thousands of residential buildings, Germany's climate protection goals can hardly be achieved.

According to a study, however, the necessary renovations will cost several trillion euros by 2045.

The housing and real estate industry sees owners completely overwhelmed.

Several associations in Berlin have called for politicians to lower their requirements and give homeowners more support.

You can also become climate-neutral with medium standards if you switch to renewable energies for heating and electricity.

"Increasingly higher standards overwhelm both builders and tenants financially and do not bring the desired climate effect," said the President of the Central Association of the Housing Industry GdW, Axel Gedaschko.

He warned of massive social upheaval.

Andreas Ibel from the Federal Association of Free Real Estate and Housing Companies spoke of a "balancing act between affordability of housing and energy efficiency".

compromises in energy efficiency

The associations doubt whether higher energy requirements actually contribute more to climate protection.

"Reducing the energy efficiency of residential buildings ultimately brings more climate protection," said Katharina Metzger, President of the Federal Association of Building Materials Specialists.

This is the only way that refurbishments can be made, especially in old buildings.

In addition, there was a risk of rent increases: If older buildings were renovated to the highest standard, "rents could rise unbearably," warned the IG Bau union.

According to a study by the Kiel-based construction consulting institute Arge for the association alliance for housing construction, around 50 billion euros are already being invested in energy-related renovations every year.

If the rate of modernization and requirements increase as politically demanded, this sum will quickly triple or quadruple.

High renovation costs

The authors of the study estimate the costs for the renovation at up to 150 billion euros per year.

By 2045 - the year in which Germany wants to be climate neutral - that would be 3.6 trillion euros.

That is more than the economic output of the Federal Republic, the gross domestic product, in the whole of 2021.

And the authors of the study do not even count on the standards that the SPD, Greens and FDP wrote in the coalition agreement.

The traffic light government wants to raise the requirements for energy efficiency in new buildings to the highest level by 2025, known as Efficiency House 40.

When converting existing buildings, the Efficiency House 70 is to be used as a model from 2024.

The study is based on less stringent specifications: efficiency house 70 for new builds and 115 for renovations.

According to the study, bringing an existing single or two-family house to the level of an efficiency house 115 costs between 660 and 1070 euros per square meter of living space.

An efficiency house 40 is at least 50 percent more expensive, at the top of almost 1600 euros per square meter.

Efficiency house 40 means that a building uses only 40 percent of the energy of a standard new building.

Climate-neutral energy as an alternative

According to the alliance of real estate companies, construction industry, union and tenants' association, the political guidelines should be downgraded.

"If we pay attention to that, then we can do it with the resources, with the craft capacities and above all with the household resources - both with the people but also with the public sector," said Gedaschko.

According to the associations, the climate goals can also be achieved if a building is not quite as energy-efficient - namely if you use clean, climate-neutral energy.

The authors of the study are of the opinion: "You can theoretically make an efficiency house 115 better than an efficiency house 40 with reasonable climate-neutral equipment."

State funding for renovations

They also recommend state funding of at least 30 billion euros a year.

Most recently there had been a lot of excitement about a funding freeze for energy-efficient construction.

At least for renovations, new applications for KfW grants can be made from next week.

It is not yet certain when the funding for new buildings will be resumed, according to government circles.

more on the subject

Habeck cancels important KfW program for home builders - associations appalled

Associations are demanding billions for new housing construction

The housing industry calls for heating cost subsidies for tenants

Without funding, experts believe that the traffic light government's goal of building 400,000 new homes a year is clearly at risk.

From the point of view of the alliance of associations, however, it is quite achievable under the right conditions.

"The potential that the conversion of existing buildings alone offers is more than 4.3 million new apartments," said Arge institute director Dietmar Walberg.

"So that's enough to achieve the federal government's goal in combination with the construction of completely new residential buildings."

Around 1.9 million apartments could be created simply by converting offices that would no longer be needed due to more home offices.

This is also comparatively cheap: the conversion of offices costs just under 1300 euros per square meter of living space - a new building more than 3400 euros.

The increase in old buildings from the post-war period could also bring around 1.5 million new apartments.

dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-02-17

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