At the current speed and depth of renovation, the EU will not achieve a highly energy-efficient and decarbonised building stock by 2050, while millions of people would still live in energy poverty. A combination of policies, measures and new business models is necessary to address the existing challenge.
The work completed as part of Build Upon and as part of our Energy Efficient mortgages projects has showed that stable and transparent regulation has a key role to play in providing long-term certainty, building capacity and generating confidence among investors.
The split incentive issue and the short length of leases in Ireland currently prevent the take up of deep energy renovation in the private rental market (commercial & residential). Against this background, some specific actions were suggested as part of the Consultation for a Better National Renovation Strategy. These include linking any lease changes to mandatory minimum energy efficiency retrofit or introducing a gradual ban on leasing of properties that do not minimum actual energy performance requirements where appropriate.
Building upon these recommendations, the IGBC has extensively researched the potential impacts of these measures on the rate and depth of renovation, as well as supporting measures required so that they achieve the desired effect.
Following the publication of an “Overcoming the split incentive barrier in the private rental market – International case studies” report in February 2019, a stakeholder engagement workshop was organised in Dublin on 1st March to develop recommendations on a solution that could work for Ireland.
The final recommendations are available here.
Organisations and individuals interested in learning more about this process and next steps should contact Marion – Marion@igbc.ie or call 01 681 5862.
This project has been supported with financial contribution from Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland under the SEAI Research, Development and Demonstration Funding Programme 2018, Grant number 18/RDD/283.
