Croatian One Stop Shop for Integrated Home Renovation

Introduction

Building renovation can generate multiple social, environmental, and economic benefits, making it a unique opportunity for climate neutrality and COVID-19 recovery. It has been estimated that 97% of all buildings will need to be upgraded by 2050. However, the EU’s weighted annual renovation rate is low, at around 1%.

Barriers to Energy Efficiency

The main barriers to energy efficiency include:

• Shortages of finance
• Split incentives between owners and tenants
• Insufficient knowledge on current consumption
• Lack of information about renovation measures

In housing, specific barriers include:

1. Fragmentation of the demand-side mass market
2. Heterogeneity of the building stock
3. High transaction costs
4. Mistrust of renovation providers

Due to their vulnerabilities, circumstances, and characteristics, a significant share of households can be regarded as being hard-to-reach with traditional energy policies, financing schemes, and business models.

Additional Challenges

A lack of easily accessible incentives and financing products is often mentioned as a barrier. Building owners often do not have the expertise necessary to make decisions and require professional assistance.

Project Objectives

The general objective of this project is to establish and organise a comprehensive marketplace and one-stop shops for homeowners and experts. These will serve as a central point for all crucial renovation processes.

The incrOss renoHome project will provide full-service holistic renovation packages for homeowners, guiding them through the entire customer journey. The aim is to unify renovation processes across the entire territorial scope, which will ultimately lead to the intensification of renovation projects of family houses and multi-apartment buildings in Croatia.

Expected Outcomes

This will make buildings more energy efficient and fossil fuel independent while retaining the same (or creating even better) indoor quality and comfort. Moreover, the project will reduce energy demand in the private housing sector and its CO2 emissions, setting a pathway towards nearly zero-energy buildings.