Bad prospects for homeowners: In addition to the ban on gas and oil heating that the Federal Ministry of Economics is aiming for, the EU Parliament is planning to tighten the rules for the renovation of buildings. By 2033, all residential buildings should achieve efficiency class D; the construction of new houses is additionally restricted by the fact that all new buildings must be “emission-free” by 2028 instead of the previously planned 2030. Due to the compulsion to renovate, real estate owners could incur costs of between 15,000 euros and 100,000 euros per residential unit. Those who cannot pay for this forced renovation are likely to lose their homes.
In December 2022, blogger Bjørn Andreas Bull-Hansen warned that the EU’s “energy performance in buildings” directives could result in a priceless refurbishment compulsion forcing people to give up their properties, Report24 reported. Instead of moving away from these plans, the intention is instead to further aggravate the situation for homeowners and those who want to become one: In addition to Habeck’s ban on oil and gas heating from 2024, the EU Parliament is now threatening to tighten the rules for building renovations .
This is intended to reduce energy consumption and make a contribution to achieving the “climate goals”. New buildings should therefore be “emission-free” two years earlier – in 2028 instead of 2030. According to a draft EU directive, all buildings in Germany should achieve energy standard D by 2033. This forces millions of homeowners to take remedial measures, so they could face the cost of better insulation or a new roof. Energy efficiency class D applies to a house with 100 to 130 kWh/m² energy consumption. According to “Bild”, around six million houses would have to be renovated, and the costs per residential unit could be between 15,000 and 100,000 euros. Anyone who does not comply with this should be subject to sanctions – the respective EU states should decide what these should look like. With the Greens in government, dark times are likely to set in for owners of older buildings in Germany.
The vote of the EU Parliament on the planned guideline should take place next week, after which the EU Commission and the responsible ministers of the member states will decide. As expected, the Green Economics Minister Habeck is one of the proponents of the compulsion to restructure.
But there is also criticism of the project. “This is politics from cloud cuckoo land. That is neither affordable nor feasible,” said Kai Warnecke, head of the Haus&Grund association, in relation to the “Bild”. Markus Pieper, EU Parliament secretary of the CDU/CSU, assumes that houses in the country and on the outskirts would be particularly affected and warns: “This ideological forced renovation is an attack on rural areas. This is how you create regional real estate crises.”
The MEP for the FDP, Andreas Glück, is also critical. He argues that the efficiency of many buildings in southern and eastern Europe is much lower than in Germany and that the standards there must first be raised. His conclusion is therefore: “The whole approach is a failure.”
Although citizens are already being unduly burdened by the high rate of inflation and skyrocketing energy prices, under the guise of climate protection, new rules and prohibitions are constantly being passed, which entail further burdens. The question always arises as to whether this is about ideology or about a redistribution of wealth in the sense of the Great Reset.