EU energy standards could take up to 200 thousand houses off the market – owners will have to pay

Greece is expecting a massive de facto revaluation and depreciation of residential real estate: within the framework of the implementation of European Union directives until 100–200 thousand residential properties there may be withdrawn from the sales and rental market because of inconsistencies minimum requirements energy efficiency.

The reason is simple and at the same time extremely painful: the owners have no money on mandatory energy modernization. With average incomes of about 1,000 euros per month investments in the amount 30–40 thousand euros to renovate a standard apartment of about 70 sq. m become economically impossible.

Even existing government subsidies do not solve the problem: in order to receive compensation, the owner must first finance the work himselfand only then – if many conditions are met – count on a partial refund.

It’s about not about recommendationsand about obligationswhich already are integrated into national legislation. The consequence may be mass exclusion of old housing stock from market circulationwhich will create serious distortions against the backdrop of an already acute housing shortage.

European directive and real consequences

At the center of the discussion is the updated Directive EU on energy efficiency of buildings (EPBD 2024/1275)which came into force in May 2024. The document replaces the previous regulation of 2010 and establishes a strategic goal: By 2050, the entire EU housing stock must become climate neutral.

According to the directive, by 2030 residential buildings must meet a minimum energy class EA from 2033 – already in class D. In Greece, this classification (from A+ to G) is fixed in Energy efficiency passport (ΠΕΑ) based on KENAC norms.

Categories F and G – the most problematic: these are, as a rule, old buildings without thermal insulation and with outdated heating systems. They are the ones who find themselves under the greatest pressure from the new European policy.

It is estimated that more than 50% of buildings in Greece were built before 1980 – without modern energy efficiency standards. As a result, the country’s housing stock is responsible for approximately 40% of final energy consumption.

Negotiations with the Ministry of Ecology and Energy

The problem was already discussed at the meeting TOMATO with management Ministry of Environment and Energy – with the participation of the minister Stavros Papastavrou and Deputy Minister Nikos Tagaras.

Owner representatives directly pointed out the risk massive loss of property value and emphasized that a significant part of old housing physically or economically not subject to modernizationwhile demand for rental and purchase remains extremely high.

In fact, we are talking about a collision European standards With socio-economic realityto which, according to the owners, neither Brussels nor the national authorities do not show proper sensitivity.

Editorial comment

The story of mandatory energy renovations is not about the environment. This is about how the “good” goals of Brussels collide with the reality of countries where most people simply don’t have tens of thousands of euros to spare.

Formally, everything looks beautiful: emissions reduction, energy efficiency, “green transition”. In practice, we are talking about forced exclusion of hundreds of thousands of apartments from the market — first of all, the old housing stock, in which not investors live, but ordinary people: pensioners, families, renters, young people.

The problem is not in the goal, but in the method. The European Directive shifts the financial burden not onto states and funds, but directly onto property owners and, ultimately, tenants. Even subsidies do not solve the problem: to get help, you first need to spend money, which most simply do not have.

As a result, a paradox arises: under the slogans of fighting energy poverty, a a new form of social vulnerability – housing. Apartments are becoming unaffordable not due to lack of demand, but due to regulatory pressure. The market is shrinking, rent is becoming more expensive, people are being forced out.

It is especially alarming that this process is presented as “technical” and “inevitable.” But it will become inevitable only in one case – if the authorities continue to ignore the real financial situation of society. Environmental policy, divorced from social reality, turns from a solution into a source of crisis.

An energy transition without money is not a transition, but a coercion. And it will not be the abstract “real estate owners” who will pay for it, but specific residents for whom the house is not an asset, but the only refuge.

Useful advice for those involved in construction master technologies to improve energy efficiency. They will still have to be implemented…

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