Homeowners and housing associations spend more money than expected on making homes more sustainable, according to a study by Thursday AD. The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) admits to the daily newspaper that it has estimated the costs for making homes more sustainable.
The planning office calculated last year what the costs are of the measures in the Climate Agreement. Part of the agreement are the costs for the greening of Dutch homes. The calculations of the PBL showed that housing associations would have lost hundreds of millions in measures, such as improved insulation of homes and removing homes from the gas.
Research from AD however, it appears that these calculations are incorrect. PBL admits that it has not included all cost items in the calculation for making the houses more sustainable.
PBL says, among other things, that it did not take into account the extra costs that contractors charge for profit and risk. The planning office also did not include the rising costs for architects, structural engineers and installation consultants, who must provide planned renovations with climate measures. In addition, the interest rate on corporations for sustainability has been estimated too low, and construction costs have increased considerably last year.
Housing corporation umbrella Aedes informs the newspaper that the greening costs are around 40 to 50 percent higher than the planning agency calculated last year, but according to the PBL that is not right. “That is not true, the difference is much smaller,” PBL researcher Nico Hoogervorst told the newspaper. Hoogervorst cannot say how much higher the costs for greening are. “But it does involve large amounts,” he acknowledges.
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