To What Extent Could Alternative Economic Models Increase Investment in the Renovation of and Reduce Energy Poverty in Social Housing in Flanders?

An important share of the social housing stock in Flanders is outdated, resulting in a high energy demand for heating. Energetic renovation is hence urgently needed. The current economic model, however, does not stimulate this due to a split incentive. As energy prices have increased in the past few years, more tenants have suffered from energy poverty. This paper investigates three alternative economic models aiming at increasing the incentive for renovation, while financially protecting the tenants. In the first alternative model, tenants are protected by inducing a maximal cost of living ba... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Els Van de moortel
Karen Allacker
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
Reihe/Periodikum: Buildings, Vol 13, Iss 12, p 3001 (2023)
Verlag/Hrsg.: MDPI AG
Schlagwörter: energy renovation / life cycle costing / social housing / affordability / cost of living / financial feasibility / Building construction / TH1-9745
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29054572
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13123001

An important share of the social housing stock in Flanders is outdated, resulting in a high energy demand for heating. Energetic renovation is hence urgently needed. The current economic model, however, does not stimulate this due to a split incentive. As energy prices have increased in the past few years, more tenants have suffered from energy poverty. This paper investigates three alternative economic models aiming at increasing the incentive for renovation, while financially protecting the tenants. In the first alternative model, tenants are protected by inducing a maximal cost of living based on their income. In the second alternative model, a fixed rent is applied, while the third alternative model proposes to share the cost benefits of the energetic renovation. The paper analyses the alternative models by assessing the costs and income for social housing companies and the costs for tenants for an unrenovated building, a renovation with a low investment cost and a deep energetic renovation. The results show that limiting the cost of living based on income seems most interesting as this is beneficial for the tenants and gives an incentive for the social housing companies to renovate. To reduce energy poverty, a deep renovation is necessary.