The state is preparing new subsidies for wooden buildings. It puts them in a favorite program

Today, the program offers the possibility to obtain subsidies for the purchase or construction of energy-saving houses. However, it does not distinguish whether it is a brick building or a wooden building. According to the Minister of the Environment Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL), this should now change.

“Wooden buildings can last fifty, but also a hundred or more years. In addition, the advantage is in the speed of their construction – we need not to annoy the neighbors with the work for too long, we need to quickly build kindergartens and, above all, much-needed housing,” stated Hladík. At the same time, wooden buildings have a lower carbon footprint than brick ones.

It is not yet clear what exactly the subsidies will look like and how much money will be spent on them. When asked by Novinek, the Ministry only referred to already published information. It follows from them that wooden buildings supported under New Green Savings will have to meet the same energy criteria as traditional buildings. And also that public buildings made of wood could raise money, for example, from revenues from the sale of emission allowances.

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Tips and trends

The state would like to see the share of wooden buildings rise to 25 percent by 2035. He states this in a forthcoming document entitled Raw Material Policy for Wood. According to the latest data from the Czech Statistical Office from 2022, only 14.1 percent of residential buildings had a wooden structure. In addition, their share has fallen slightly in recent years. The highest was in 2018, when it was 16.1 percent.

By fulfilling the plan, the Czech Republic would overtake Germany or Switzerland, where a fifth of houses are currently built from wood. For example, roughly a third of buildings in Austria are made of wood, and in Sweden even 90 percent.

Schools and factories made of wood

The state concept also assumes that wood will be a more common building material for the state and municipalities as well. It proposes to set its share at least twenty percent in the construction of new public buildings. For example, the first schools are already being built from wood.

“In the future, wooden buildings will also be common for public services and very likely also for industry,” noted Lenka Trandová, director of the Association of Prefab House Suppliers.

The gradual loosening of strict rules for their construction has also helped the development of wooden buildings. Czech standards only allow buildings to be built up to a height of twelve meters, which, for example, is not very profitable for developers.

The authorities have recently approved that builders can exceed this limit, for example, by using the so-called engineering approach. In short, this consists in developing a very detailed design for the security of the house during a fire, with which the builder proves that the building, despite its greater height, will meet the applicable safety regulations. According to the developers, this is how a building up to 22.5 meters high should be built.

In addition, the rules are to be changed as early as next year, which would make it possible to design taller wooden buildings in a similar way to classic houses.