Attic apartment – illustrative photo.
Prague – Chairman of the Civic Association of Home Owners (OSMD) Milan Krček considers the proposal for a directive to support the renovation of buildings in the European Union approved today as unrealistic and activist. According to him, this is an unprecedented interference with the rights of private property owners in particular. According to the approved proposal, residential buildings should achieve a minimum energy efficiency of class D by 2033, which, according to Krček, can also cause panic and cause a further increase in the prices of building materials and works. ČTK reported it.
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According to the EU proposal, residential buildings should reach at least energy efficiency class E by 2030 and then class D by 2033, on a scale from A to G, with G indicating 15 percent of the most energy-intensive buildings in a given member state. The European Parliament (EP) will still discuss the final wording of the legislation with the member states.
Krček wrote an open letter on behalf of OSMD to Czech MEPs asking them not to vote for the directive. After its approval today, he stated that he is convinced of the unrealistic nature of the implementation. “It's another megalomaniacal vision of climate activists that will do more harm than good,” thinks the head of OSMD, which currently has approximately 3,000 members. They are primarily owners of rental apartment buildings, the overwhelming majority of First Republic and older buildings. 26 percent of homes owned by OSMD members were built before 1900.
According to the 2021 census, there were over 200,000 inhabited apartment buildings and 1.7 million family homes in the Czech Republic. Krček pointed out that the biggest problems will concern older buildings, while according to the law on energy management, houses built before 1947 do not need to have a certificate of the building's energy efficiency. “With many old buildings, it will not be possible to carry out some things at all. How do you want to cover an Art Nouveau house with gilded elements on the facade with polystyrene? That is absurd,” said Krček. He added that the EU is thereby giving roughly eight years to renovate roughly 35 to 40 percent of all buildings in the Union.
The money for renovations should come primarily from European funds. According to Krček, it will be possible to use subsidies, but their allocation takes time and not everyone will get them. He estimated that the complex renovation of a five-story corner apartment building from 1912 in Prague will cost approximately 25 million crowns. “Just one three-part window costs around 140,000 crowns, and there are twelve of them on the floor,” said Krček.
He thinks there may be panic on the market when the deadline for the regulation approaches. Eighty percent of the houses will not meet it, and the question is what it will do to the prices of materials and construction work and the like, said Krček. He pointed out that there will also be a shortage of renovation and insulation specialists.
The proposed revision of the directive on the energy performance of buildings aims to reduce emissions, create new jobs, reduce energy dependence on Russian fossil fuels and reduce utility bills. energy. According to the European Commission (EC), buildings are responsible for 40 percent of energy consumption and 36 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU bloc.
