European Strategy for Housing Construction: EBE’s response to the call for evidence

Efficient Buildings Europe welcomes the European Commission’s initiative for a Strategy for Housing Construction. As a key contributor to European competitiveness, the construction and efficient buildings industry is fully engaged in supporting Member States in tackling the housing crisis. The Strategy should build upon the existing regulatory framework and keep the multiple benefits of energy-efficient housing as a core principle.

Efficient Buildings Europe advises the European Commission to:

• Provide regulatory and financial stability to the efficient buildings industry. The Strategy should facilitate the implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive. These two directives provide market predictability to the construction and renovation European industry, to plan investments and scale up innovation.
• While the construction of new efficient housing will help tackle the current crisis, the Strategy should also encourage energy renovations to bring vacant buildings back on the market. A report by the European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless (Feantsa) estimated that one in six properties in Europe are vacant – equal to around 38 million empty homes. These houses remain unavailable to the market for diverse reasons, such as property speculation and inability to afford renovations. Together with innovative methods such as vertical extensions and attic reconversions, energy renovations allow for an increased number of dwellings without requiring new building plots. They will alleviate the shortage of available building land, especially in densely populated urban areas.
• Beyond this, innovative approaches to renovation can reduce costs and decrease time on site. Offsite construction and renovation, digital planning and operation, vertical extensions, attic reconversions, and building repurposing offer pragmatic solutions to the sector’s current challenges. They allow for faster construction times, reduced waste, improved quality control, and optimise the personnel involved. The upcoming Housing Construction Strategy should identify, remove the main barriers to, and incentivise the uptake of industrialised techniques.
• Facilitate the use of digital solutions across the building’s lifecycle. Data plays a transformative role during the design phase of new construction and energy renovations. The integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Digital Twin technologies allows for detailed energy simulations, life-cycle assessments, and optimization of building systems before a single brick is laid. These digital tools enable architects, engineers, and developers to test multiple design scenarios, assess the impact of material choices, and ensure regulatory compliance in virtual environments. Digitalisation is making construction safer by leveraging technologies like BIM, drones, wearable devices, and AI-powered systems to enhance site monitoring, risk assessment, and communication. These advancements enable proactive hazard detection, real-time incident reporting, and improved collaboration, ultimately leading to a safer working environment and reduced accident rates. BIM can also participate in enhancing circular practices in the built environment by identifying recyclable materials in pre-demolition audits.
  • The Strategy should mandate the phase-in of BIM in public procurement for buildings, following the Spanish good practice.
  • The implementation of the EPBD will also help support the uptake of digital technologies and software in buildings.
• In line with the Public Procurement Directives revision, the Strategy should ensure the creation of lead markets and the purchase of energy-efficiency products and technologies. By preferring life cycle costing, public procurers would be encouraged to opt for more sustainable, efficient and affordable bids.
• Draw clear links with the European Affordable Housing Plan and the Water Resilience Strategy. The Strategy should be in line with the Affordable Housing Plan and Water Resilience Strategy’s approach of energy and water-efficient buildings.
• Address the shortage of workforce and skills in the construction and efficient buildings sector. The Strategy should enhance collaboration with Member States and industry players to map existing skills and anticipate future needs and shortages. This can be done through the EU Pact for Skills and the Just Transition Platform. Innovative building practices, such as pre-fabrication, can also contribute to alleviating the workforce gap in the sector by requiring fewer personnel.