‘Making your own home sustainable is not profitable’ | Money

Making homes more sustainable requires too great an investment from most households, according to the PBL. It often takes years before the savings generated by green measures such as a heat pump, solar panels and the shutdown of gas pay off. As a result, it is usually not possible to take sustainable measures without increasing housing costs.

For example, a household that wants to boost its energy label from D to energy neutral will lose an average of 35,000 for this, calculated the PBL. This provides a monthly saving of 50 euros in housing costs, but it takes more than thirty years before the entire investment is recouped.

If there is no additional policy, the contribution that home owners make to achieving the goals in the climate agreement will be considerably lower than that the government is now taking into account, according to the PBL. The Climate Agreement states that all homes in the Netherlands must be energy neutral by 2050.

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