Triple glazing, solar panels. New houses cannot be built any other way

Environmental principles, known as ESG, have been essential for entrepreneurs in the real estate sector for several years. Compliance with them is increasingly being demanded not only by customers, but especially by banks. With so-called green projects, they can obtain credit more easily and often on more favorable terms than in the case of standard construction.

That is why some builders and investors already have a clear idea of how the rules currently being approved by the European Union will change the shape of not only Czech buildings. According to them, new buildings owned, operated or used by public authorities should have zero emissions from 2028. From 2030 then all new buildings and from 2050 completely all buildings with the exception of monuments.

All houses are to be climate neutral from 2050, the European Parliament approved

Economy

“The European rules will be particularly difficult for developers,” said Erik Janovský, investment manager of the Mint Investments group, which runs a real estate fund focused on rental housing in new buildings.

“It’s good that some developers already use such materials, such as recycled aggregate in the Vysočanský mill. These are things that will contribute to the desired carbon neutrality,” mentioned the Janovské project, which is being built for Mint by the Metrostav company.

Another company that uses recycled materials is Skanska Residential. A few years ago, the Swedish company developed the so-called Rebetong, i.e. 100% recycled concrete, in cooperation with the technological company ERC-Tech. Compared to the standard version, it saves around eight percent of carbon dioxide emissions.

Skanska uses it, for example, when building apartments in Modřany in Prague. “At the Modřanský sugar factory, we are applying innovations that we expect will become the standard for residential construction in the future,” said project manager Petr Dušta. At the same time, thanks to technology, the buildings in Modran should reduce their water consumption to roughly half of the Prague average. Their roofs are also equipped with photovoltaic panels.

Reconstruction of all older houses will cost 1.5 trillion

Mint also intends to work with photovoltaics. And it also focuses on other energy details. “For example, we dealt with one developer who proposed heating using electricity under the floor. However, according to the label tracking this factor, the energy demand of such a building would be too high. So we said that we would rather use a central source of heat, i.e. a heating plant,” described Janovský.

According to Janovský, triple glazing limiting heat leakage or exterior blinds will also be an important part of modern houses. These are mainly used in the summer, when the sun burns into the glass parts of the buildings. Janovský mentions that cooling indoor spaces in such a way that they are habitable is more complicated than heating them in winter.

How exactly the new regulation will be reflected in real estate prices is not yet clear. For example, according to Janovský, it will depend on the specific form of Czech laws related to it.

Current ecological projects do not differ much in price from the rest of the market. For example, the aforementioned Skanska sells apartments in Modřany for prices around 135,000 per square meter. The Prague-wide average, including the more attractive central parts of the city, is around 150,000 crowns per meter.

Over time, all buildings will have to adapt to similar requirements as new buildings. From 2050, even the older ones are to be climate neutral. According to the estimates of the Minister of the Environment, their reconstruction will cost about 1.5 trillion crowns.