Another edition of the UIPI Renovation Tour, this time in Athens with the Greek Owners on Board, has passed and UIPI is happy to share that once again the event proved to be a success! It confirmed its importance to generate the debate around the Renovation Wave and what it means for the private real estate sector. Held on March 11, the event gathered nearly 150 participants, addressed many aspects related to the Green Deal, energy transition and Renovation Wave, and demonstrated how Greek property owners are interested to learn about this topics and willing to renovate their properties, but are also lacking the resources to do so.
The European Commission’s climate goals heavily impact property owners, with many new obligations arriving or already being set up, but many are still not aware of these new measures nor the resources and tools that can be used to meet these. Adding to this, the rules are not always easy to understand, varying according to country and region, as Member States are responsible to for the path chosen to meet the goals, the market is not adapted to help property owners to renovate in mass as expected in the Renovation Wave, nor property owners have the available funds needed at disposal in the majority of cases.
The wide range of speakers included politicians and policy-makers from European, national and regional levels, as well as stakeholder representatives, experts and EU-funded project representatives (from Drive 0, ENPOR and PROGETONE) leading to very interesting and rich debates. The audience made many contributions and unfortunately even in a full-day programme not all questions had time to be addressed. The audience shared its concerns with the present speakers, hopefully paving the way to more and better adapted future policies. Some of the existing needs mentioned are clear information (about obligations but also available support schemes, services and products), funds (rarely personal ones are available and very little support schemes are available and accessible), viable and affordable options in the construction sector market (lack of professionals and materials, and techniques that are sustainable), and programmes that guarantee the inclusion of all, tackling energy poverty.
Solutions brought from the EU-funded projects, namely from Drive 0, were received with interest by the participants, who welcome proposals of renovation pathways that are cost effective and sustainable. The Drive 0 results and its Greek pilot demo were presented by Margarita-Niki Assimakopoulos, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics of the Department of Applied Physics and Meteorology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Drive 0 consortium member.
The general satisfaction of the speakers and audience was rewarding for UIPI that hopes to keep organising these events to better understand the reality experienced by property owners across the EU, bring policy and citizens closer and capitalise on the work conducted by EU-funded projects, promoting their solutions in a comprehensive and tailored way. Photos of the event are already available on the event website and the recording will be available very soon. We thank all that participated for the valued contributions.