Practice of multi-family housing renovations. Comparative study of Stockholm and Vilnius on motivating, driving and bottleneck factors

Abstract: Problem of unutilized energy saving potential in the multifamily housing stock of European Union has been emphasized by the European Commission (2008). Comparative study at hand takes tenant – owner associations of Stockholm and Vilnius as study cases. The goal is to find out what are the motivating and obstacle factors that create reasons for tenant – owner associations to invest or to delay investment into energy saving measures. Further aim is to generate suggestions for energy saving policy improvements based on the motivating and obstacle factors for the given capitals. Targets have been implemented by series of interviews held with board leaders of tenant – owner associations. Comparative study has revealed that main obstacles for energy saving renovation is of informational nature – lack of precise, reliable and verified data distracts from investments, since it is difficult to estimate the expected payback and other financial figures. Findings in the perspective of motivating factors are of monetary nature – tenant–owner associations are mostly motivated by monetary savings.