The research project RENTALCAL presented its first outcomes at the ERES 2016 conference in Regensburg.
The RentalCal project focuses on the current level of energy efficiency investments in the rented housing sector, which is in danger of missing EU policy targets. RentalCal will show a clear road map towards a sustainable housing stock and is developing models and tools for assessing the commercial viability of energy efficiency retrofitting in rental properties. This will reduce split incentive barriers – translating the positive effects of energy efficient and sustainable construction into real value and financially feasible investments for the real estate industry.
Preliminary results presented include a large-scale study of the value of energy efficiency in the private German residential rental market, which demonstrates that energy efficient properties are rented at a premium. However, this finding does not apply to very tight metropolitan markets where scarcity of supply may mask the ‘true’ value of energy efficiency in these markets.
Also, initial approaches for the inclusion of additional benefits of energy saving measures and consideration of the impact of energy performance on residential buildings‘ market value were presented.
Presentations can be downloaded here.