Managing Energy Efficient Refurbishment Within Homeowners Associations (HOA): A Qualitative Study

Abstract

As far as climate protection is concerned, the German government has set itself the target of a virtually climate-neutral building stock by the year 2050. Currently, a refurbishment backlog exists especially for homeowner associations (HOA) in Germany: Nearly 70% of condominiums are considered unrefurbished. At the same time, HOA share 22% of the total building stock in Germany. Therefore, these stakeholders are a key success factor for the ongoing implementation of climate protection targets. The decision to implement energetic refurbishment measures is basically the responsibility of the HOA. Within this process, the property manager is eminently important: He plans, controls and monitors tasks and acts as an interface between the owners and other stakeholders (e.g. craftsmen). In order to identify possible strategies for the implementation, and to determine influencing factors of property managers, we conducted eight qualitative expert interviews with selected property managers. As a result of this study, we identified several barriers for the implementation of energy efficient refurbishment as seen from the perspective of property managers (e.g. a lack of remuneration). Thus, recommendations which are bound to enhance the rate of energetic refurbishment within homeowners associations could be formulated.