The lack of housing in Spain is an historic debate that has not yet been resolved. If there is a lack of housing, it will have to be rehabilitated. The construction sector is faced with a challenge: to return to the market nearly three million buildings that are not habitable and to which must added the obligation to energetically rehabilitate an ageing housing stock that is responsible for 14% of CO2 emissions, in order to adapt it to European regulations by 2050.
According to INE, there are about 19 million dwellings in Spain, of which 3.5 million are empty according to the state census published in 2013 (the latest housing census). Of these empty houses, most of them, between 70% and 80%, require comprehensive rehabilitation. We are talking about between 2.5 and 2.8 million houses that are out of the rental or purchase market because their condition does not allow it, they are uninhabitable or obsolete. Meanwhile, the housing shortage is estimated at 1.4 million, according to the latest building report by DWS, the real estate branch of Germany’s Deutsche Bank.
Rehabilitate 3 million homes with the most disruptive techniques
Although rehabilitation in Spain has been increasing in recent years, the great challenge now is to make these almost three million homes off of the market habitable. During the international congress European Building Summit Barcelona (EBS), which will take place within the framework of Construmat, on 24 and 25 May at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, there will be a debate on how to promote this rehabilitation with national and international experts who will provide solutions, case studies, innovative tools and platforms that enable digitization and collaborative work in construction and rehabilitation.
The challenge of being climate neutral
Due to the two major construction booms that our country has experienced, without any regulations on how to avoid energy leaks in homes, we have another type of rehabilitation, the energy one, and this affects a large volume of residential housing that is inhabited. In Spain, 20 million homes do not comply with energy efficiency conditions, according to the Association for Efficient and Social Urban Renewal with Large Scale Rehabilitation (RESSEMERGENCE). Thus, poorly insulated and energy inefficient housing is responsible for 14% of CO2 emissions. To accelerate this renovation and ensure that our homes reduce their energy consumption, both the Spanish government and the European Union have promoted regulations that will oblige all owners of the residential and commercial building to renovate their buildings in terms of energy efficiency.
Thus, the European Parliament has established that by 2050, buildings constructed from 2028 onwards must be climate-neutral and with zero emissions to the environment. This regulation establishes an energy rate for buildings – such as household appliances – and will oblige all owners to adapt to the regulation within a few years.
Spain, for its part, has drawn up its own regulations to meet the European Union targets. It concerns the “Implementación de la Estrategia a largo plazo para la Rehabilitación Energética en el Sector de la Edificación en España (ERESEE)” (Implementation of the Long-term Strategy for Energy Rehabilitation in the Building Sector in Spain). This regulation is accompanied by an action plan that affects the entire building stock, whether public or private, residential or commercial, with the aim of involving all administrations and achieving high energy efficiency and total decarbonisation.
In short, there is no time to lose: to reach 2050 with our homework done, we must go from 30,000 rehabilitations per year to 400,000. This is a challenge for the future and a business challenge that the sector must face up timmediately.
