Berlin The Central Association of the Housing Industry in Germany (GdW) sharply criticized the building directive presented by the EU Commission on Wednesday. “A factual immediate doubling of the renovation rate is absolutely unrealistic under the current conditions of scarce handicraft capacities and in view of the shortage of materials and the rise in prices,” said GdW President Axel Gedaschko.
The Central Association of the Real Estate Industry (ZIA) also warned against overburdening the industry. The goal of a climate-neutral building stock can only be achieved if sufficient skilled workers are available and building materials are available in sufficient quantities and at affordable prices. The challenges are enormous.
Buildings are one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases in the EU. With the directive, the Commission wants to accelerate climate protection in buildings and is primarily proposing minimum efficiency standards. The Handelsblatt had already reported on the plans that morning.
No building should belong to the worst efficiency class G by 2030 at the latest. The commission wants to group 15 percent of the building stock in this class, which corresponds to three million buildings in Germany according to GdW data. From this, the association calculates a necessary renovation rate of two percent. This is currently around one percent.
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It is downright a dilemma: A necessary short-term doubling of the renovation rate as a result of the directive and later further increases would stand in the way of very limited craft capacities, said Gedaschko. “If the renovation rate cannot be increased quickly, however, there will be a real renovation backlog here in a few years.”
The increasing demand pressure will also push prices up further, warned Gedaschko. The housing companies would then come under great pressure when making the necessary investments, since apart from the modernization of the buildings with the highest energy consumption there would be hardly any funds left for existing or new housing.
There is also criticism that the commission only focuses on individual buildings. “The big picture is missing,” says the housing industry and praises the traffic light government in Germany: In contrast to the EU directive, the coalition agreement provides for neighborhood approaches.
75 percent of the building stock in the EU is considered to be energetically inefficient
The pressure is enormous: around 75 percent of the current building stock within the EU is considered to be energetically inefficient. Nevertheless, the commission must be careful that the housing costs do not rise to astronomical heights because of the renovations.
“For an economically and socially acceptable energy transition in housing, what is required must be promoted,” said GdW President Gedaschko. “If you introduce minimum efficiency standards, there must therefore also be a legal right to funding.”
The state must offer a solution to owners who do not have equity capital so that they can renovate without losing their property.
>> Read also: Anyone who renovates their building in an energy-efficient manner can rely on state support. But the clock is ticking for applications based on the old KfW rules. What interested parties now have to consider.
The civil engineer and professor Lamia Messari-Becker also criticized that the EU “unfortunately lags behind research, practice and also the possibilities”. She told Handelsblatt that the focus on individual buildings and one-dimensional ideas of efficiency is “not expedient”. Because quarters could do more. Measures can be implemented here “together, more socially acceptable, technically more innovative and, in the end, also more ecological”.
She advises the federal government to “urgently balance the recommendations with regard to social aspects, an aging society, building capacities and other requirements with direct consequences for owners and tenants in order to take people with them in their respective situations”.
The CDU economic politician and Member of the European Parliament, Markus Pieper, criticized that the Commission proposal would result in “double burdens”. Because if you stipulate energy standards for all buildings and at the same time include the sector in the European emissions trading system, housing would become more expensive in several ways.
“If you correctly rely on emissions trading, then detailed renovation requirements should be avoided,” said the CDU politician. Instead, one should use the income from emissions trading to promote buildings with the lowest efficiency standards, which are to be refurbished within certain deadlines, with tenders financed from it.
Praise from the Greens
Jutta Paulus, who sits on the European Parliament’s industrial and environmental committee for the Greens, supported the proposal: “It is good that the EU Commission is finally setting clear guidelines for modernizing the most inefficient buildings. The future lies in energy-efficient, sustainably built buildings that meet their energy needs directly from decentralized renewable energies. “
For the Central Association of German Crafts (ZDH), the commission’s renovation project means potentially bulging order books. “However, it still has to be refined so that craft businesses can also use their opportunities,” said Secretary General Holger Schwannecke and demanded: “We need a clearly formulated commitment that craftspeople can continue to issue energy certificates independently in the future. The ID cards must not be overloaded with key figures, but should only contain relevant information on how a house or apartment can be made more energy-efficient. “
More: EU draft law: How to make buildings climate neutral