MILAN (ITALPRESS) – Having more efficient properties reduces the expenses of maintenance, increases the value of the property, limits the consumption of raw materials, certainly increases the resilience of society. It also generates value, including employment. In Europe, housing stock built before 2001 is prevalent, with peaks of even more than 80 percent in many European areas. Encouraging interventions to improve the energy performance of these buildings is strategic and affects tens of millions of citizens. What financial supports are there? On which products, of the thousands of supplier companies from around the world, to focus their attentions? And which solid contractors to target?Questions to which today it is complex to give quick but also certain answers. A facilitating and participatory ecosystem from the financial system and the renovation supply chain would be necessary as well as welcome.The real estate sector plays a key role on the European economy, both because of the economic volume it moves and because of the many players involved, starting with the finance that individuals and companies resort to.The current situation in Europe sees a strong exposure of properties built between 1945 and 2001.These properties can be improved with important benefits in terms of energy but also value. And they can create an important boost for the economy of the entire Continent as the situation of the large European countries is very similar. Recall that Germany as well as Italy experienced a real estate boom between the 1950s and 1960s, which in Italy lasted until the 1980s while in Germany between the 1970s and 1980s there was a slowdown but in the 1990s we saw a new acceleration in renovations due to reunification and then also new housing for immigration. Also in Germany, about 5 million new dwellings were built between 2001 and 2021 out of a stock of more than 30 million. Non-Class A housing is over 85 percent. France also has a housing stock in excess of 30 million, and only about 10% are in class A. Spain saw significant growth in the number of dwellings, especially during the building boom of the 2000s, when many new constructions were completed. However, after the housing market collapsed in 2008 as a result of the economic crisis related to subprime mortgages, the rate of new construction fell dramatically and many homes remained unsold or unoccupied. In Spain, class A housing is less than 10 percent.The European Mortgage Federation-European Covered Bond Council (EMF-ECBC) and consortium partners, Università Cà Foscari Venezia, CRIF, Modefinance, Operate, Harley&Dikkinson Consulting and Leibniz-Institut Fur Finanzmarktforschung Safe Ev (SAFE), announce the launch of Delivering the Energy Efficient Mortgages Ecosystem (DeliverEEM). This ambitious project builds on the foundation laid by the already EU-funded Energy Efficient Mortgages Initiative (EEMI) in response to the European Commission’s call to increase private sector engagement in energy efficiency financing, thereby supporting Europe’s transition to a more sustainable future.The official presentation of DeliverEEM will be held on October 4 in Venice, Italy, during the 3rd EEMI International Sustainable Housing Finance Symposium and will be attended by authorities and institutions from the European Commission, OECD, Bank of Italy and the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition, to contribute to discussions on the key role of sustainable finance in the energy transition.DeliverEEM will support the development of Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEM) by creating an integrated market ecosystem that ensures an effective end-to-end customer journey and optimized market interventions. The project aims to provide a model for both established and emerging markets, with the potential for global replication, through targeted consumer and market insights, innovative financial operating models, and improved institutional cooperation.DeliverEEM comes at a decisive time, as the increasingly complex geopolitical and macroeconomic landscape highlights the urgent need to pursue the goals of the Paris Agreement.Building on EEMI’s previous successes to standardize energy efficiency in loan appraisals, DeliverEEM will promote the EU’s climate goals while supporting the European Commission’s Green Deal and Renovation Wave, which are critical to sustainable development and economic growth.A key feature of DeliverEEM will be a focus on reducing the risk of energy efficiency investments, improving the valuation of ESG factors in real estate listings, and coordinating a streamlined renovation supply chain that puts consumers at the forefront of the transition. The project will also provide tools, mechanisms, and best practices for market participants throughout the supply chain, supporting the development of the energy efficiency mortgage market.With the collaboration of consortium partners and the key participation of pilot financial institutions, Banco BPM, Banca Sella, Agos, Jyske Realkredit, and MBH Bank, DeliverEEM is poised to drive the energy transition through innovative financial models and partnerships, ensuring that the mortgage sector continues to play a central role in supporting Europe’s path to a more sustainable and resilient economy.Commenting on the launch of DeliverEEM, coordinator Luca Bertalot, said, ‘The scale of the climate challenge is nothing short of enormous and we cannot afford to be naïve: unfortunately, there are no simple solutions to the problems we face. A systemic approach to building a new sustainable housing ecosystem, grounded in a full understanding of the challenges and needs of all market stakeholders, including consumers, banks, investors, SMEs and digital start-ups, is the key to rapidly increasing the flow of private capital for the renovation of the EU’s housing stock. Our new EU-funded project, DeliverEEM, will help unlock resources from capital markets to support the climate transition and is therefore the industry’s best response to Mario Draghi’s recent recommendations in his EU Competitiveness Report.’ Having an energy-intensive housing stock exposes it to high risks and also undermines the value of the economic system. Finding an accelerator to improve the situation is crucial, and the Department of Economics at Ca Foscari has been engaged for years on the issues of financeability of energy efficiency keeping as a guideline the resilience of the system but also its competitiveness with an overall vision and knowledge.”In order to make buildings more efficient, we need to intervene but it takes money,” says Professor Monica Billio, ordinary professor at Cà Foscari University Venice. “We need to look at the whole of Europe, and from this it is clear that a common vision and strategy can lead to better results just as the founding fathers of the European Union have always believed. In Italy we have had the experience of the superbonus with partial results, great economic exposure and with the aggravation of problems in the materials supply chain. We need an innovative ecosystem and that is why we are engaging in this new project, DeliverEEM, which has all the characteristics to be of help to citizens, companies and the financial system that in this sector reaches a very important value of GDP’.
– photo EEMI DeliverEEM -(ITALPRESS).
