News

On September 29th several stakeholders in the area of integrated home renovation (service providers, EU projects teams, EU institutions, and others) came together in Brussels to network and brainstorm the sector’s hot topics. The event was the perfect occasion for more than 50 participants to get a bird’s eye view of the several OSS and Integrated Home Renovation Services (IHRS) initiatives and dive into the hot topic of how to make these services available and viable in the long run.

EUROPA supported, together with PadovaFIT Expanded, Opengela, Save the Homes, and others, the organization of the event which was led by the EU-funded ORFEE project. 

Each project had the opportunity to present its objectives and results, also displaying posters detailing the value proposals. Throughout the day, a number of topics were discussed in small groups, ranging from “engaging with homeowners” to “financing” and “achieving a high quality of the renovations”.

All the participants agreed that the main challenge is related to OSS financing.  The main objective is to increase the renovation rate all across Europe, but this can only be done if OSS will have enough resources to operate. In many cases, OSSs have a good start, but then fail to develop truly self-sustaining business models.

From the point of view of homeowners, what is most needed is an affordable, long-term and up-front financing scheme for retrofitting in every country and location. In order to tackle these and other issues, the next steps may be to set up a community of practitioners who could provide guidance and support to existing and future local OSS across the EU.

The current world economic situation, together with the energy crisis, is adding more pressure to Europe’s buildings renovation process and demand more than ever an innovative financial instrument, both for OSS and homeowners.

For the EUROPA project, the workshop constituted a relevant in-person EU Capacity building; a much-needed eye-opener on other One-Stop Shop (OSS) projects and service providers’ perspectives.