Status: 07/20/2021 5:49 p.m.
Despite rising real estate prices, people in Germany have more and more living space available on average. But that puts a strain on the climate footprint, according to a study – the renovation of old buildings is also progressing too slowly.
On average, people in Germany live in more and more space. However, according to a study by DZ Bank, this and many unrenovated buildings have a negative impact on the carbon footprint of real estate. The direct CO2 emissions from the building stock have therefore stagnated at around 120 million tonnes a year since 2014, despite increased efforts, according to the study. One reason is the increasingly larger living space on average, which has a negative effect on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Despite increased real estate prices and high housing costs, the living space per capita has increased significantly in recent years: While it was around 36 square meters in 1995, it was 47 square meters per person at the end of 2020 according to the Federal Statistical Office. A trend reversal is not in sight, write the authors in Frankfurt. “The growing number of one-person households and the desire for spacious apartments – also with a view to home office – that have increased due to the pandemic are likely to drive the growth in space further.”
Many buildings in need of renovation
The large number of old properties is also bad for the climate balance. Most of the 20 million residential buildings with almost 43 million apartments in Germany are getting on in years and need a lot of energy, often from oil and gas. Half of the households heat with gas, around a quarter use heating oil. The heat pumps popular in new houses have so far hardly played a role in the existing building.
Germany is not a role model when it comes to “living from a climate perspective,” it said. Low interest rates, promotional loans and subsidies, for example for insulation, are helpful in improving the energy balance of real estate. But because there are so many buildings in need of renovation and the capacities of construction and craft companies are limited, this could take decades rather than years. The pace at which emissions are being reduced is by no means sufficient to meet the environmental requirements of the federal government, which wants to make the building stock climate-neutral in the long term.
The rate of renovation must therefore increase without overburdening tenants and owners, the DZ Bank concludes. Because noticeably rising rents for existing apartments are likely even with relatively high subsidy measures. In order to manage the balancing act between climate protection and affordable housing, better efficiency and coordination of measures are necessary.