Energy renovation for home-owners in residential buildings.

09/03/2023

Home-owners in residential buildings are one of the major targets for helping the energy transition in France. They represent a large potential for energy savings but getting them in the process is even more complicated than expected.

Some of the financial support is designed to make energy renovation easier. In 2020, the French government launched an economic recovery plan (« France Relance ») and created « MaPrimeRénov Copropriété », literally translated as « My financial aid for renovating as a home-owner in residential building ».

Everyone can have an access to this program if there is a project to renovate building facilities shared between home-owners, in order to reduce energy consumption. As it is a collective support, the co-ownership trustee will be in charge of collecting money from the grant. Either a home-owner lives in its apartment or rents it, it will get benefits from this financial support, whatever its earning level. For home-owners with less financial privilege, an additional aid is provided.

Depending on how deep the renovation project is, other financial bonuses exist to maximize the financial support. Getting this add-on is possible when the purpose is to reach the highest level of a low-energy building or to sort the building out of the worst level of energy consumption.

However, terms have to be respected to ensure the « MaPrimeRénov Copropriété » grant:

75% of the apartments in the building have to be principal residences
The building has to be officially registered as a residential building managed by home-owners
35% of energy savings have to be guaranteed
An Assistant to the Contracting Authority certified « MaPrimeRénov Copropriété » has to be chosen as a partner to realize the renovation project

In 2023, the French government reviewed the amount of the program: the ceiling aid is now 60% more:

So, why is it difficult to get home-owners into an energy renovation building project? It seems that the « making decision process » could be the main reason. In France, each step of a renovation journey has to be voted by all the home-owners during a general meeting. It may take between two and five months from the early phase of a renovation project to the vote related to the renovation works.

To ensure the majority, information and communication towards home-owners are needed before each vote for raising awareness. As the residents living in the building are very different (lessors, tenants, young or old people, various living standards), this point is crucial to understand mid and long-term advantages provided to everyone by an energy renovation project. Co-ownership trustee and co-ownership council are the key, due to their strategic position, to reach this « one voice » goal by connecting with home-owners.

It happens sometimes that some of the areas that AGEDEN is in charge of, are very specific: as they mainly host ski resorts, big part of residential buildings includes secondary residences only dedicated for holidays. Informing and raising awareness are both more complicated to organize in this case, as home-owners are away the most part of the year. That is also true when it comes to convincing them to vote for a renovation project: financial aids created by the French government are mainly for principal residences. That is why some local authorities launched their own programs to encourage energy renovation projects for secondary residences in residential buildings.

That is the role of AGEDEN to help home-owners and co-ownership trustees for easing the energy renovation journey since the beginning of the process. By joining the Europa programme as the French pilot, the non-profit organization can do so.

Besides, implementing the Europa One-Stop-Shop project is one of the best experiences to improve AGEDEN both practices and tools linked to energy efficiency, such as the Energy Efficiency Subscription.

Following below, more details about how AGEDEN support home-owners during an energy renovation journey.

STEP 1 – Inform and gather all home-owners by:

Visiting the residential building with members of the co-ownership trustee and the co-ownership council
Making a report with points that could be improved in the building for more energy efficiency by renovating
Sharing this report during a meeting for all inhabitants and stakeholders that might be concerned by the renovation project, answering to their first questions, and managing to clear potential barriers

STEP 2 – Support the co-ownership trustee in order to identify the construction companies needed for the renovation project by:

Sharing tools and practices to select the construction companies: list of qualified companies, sample of a requirements specification brief, etc.
Analyzing estimates with impartiality : level of quality, technical aspects and costs are discussed and compared

STEP 3 – Get the majority at the general assembly by:

Reviewing once more estimates to make sure they fit financial programme requirements and the workability is ensured
Assessing the amount of financial grants based on estimates and personal details of each contractor : home-owner, lessor, earning level
Hosting a meeting to inform home-owners about which financial programs, both collective and individual, they can pretend to, renovation works suggestions and cost estimated associated, and steps to follow to go ahead in the energy renovation journey

As a summary, AGEDEN is the main, neutral and independent partner for supporting home-owners in residential buildings in an energy renovation journey since the early phases to the renovation works.