According to data from Confedilizia, at present more than 9 million buildings in Italy, out of a total of 12.2 million, do not comply with the directive.
This is no surprise. 74% of the properties in our country were built before the entry into force of the full legislation on energy saving and seismic safety. Moreover, 75.4% of the energy performance certificates issued in 2020 relate to properties in the most polluting classes, E, F and G.
Class G, the most polluting, currently accounts for over a third (35.3%) of the total (Enea-CTI data).
Confedilizia maintains that applying the directive in the short term would mean costly renovations for owners of two properties out of three.
It also adds that, in a great many cases, the work required for green homes would not be feasible, owing to the characteristics of the buildings themselves. According to Confedilizia, such a timetable would also cause a sharp rise in prices, in addition to the difficulty of finding raw materials, scaffolding, skilled labour and specialist firms.
OICE’s estimates
Let us now look at the estimates from OICE, the association of engineering and architecture firms belonging to Confindustria, which seem more detailed.
The coordinator of the Superbonus working group, Fabio Tonelli, has estimated, on the basis of data gathered during the current period of Superbonus renovations, the cost of the work needed to reach class D by 2033: what the green directive requires.
Take a typical building, constructed in the 1980s and located about 400 metres above sea level: assuming 5 floors above ground, with flats of an average size of about 105 sq m, moving from the current class G to class D gives an estimated average minimum cost of about €40,000 per flat for work on the external envelope (walls, roof and the floor beneath the first heated storey).
With more comprehensive work (windows and doors, boilers and a communal photovoltaic system), about €20,000 more per flat must be added. The study specifies that the amounts include works, technical fees and VAT at 10%.
Energy efficiency work would also be an excellent opportunity to upgrade Italy’s building stock for seismic safety. The cost of non-invasive seismic improvement work (local reinforcement, anti-overturning measures for external walls and repair of deteriorated parts) for the same type of building, in seismic zones 1 and 2, is currently estimated at about €55,000 per flat.
In light of the data analysed, OICE confirms that compliance will require a rather considerable financial effort in such a short time. It therefore suggests that the rules be introduced gradually.
At the same time, it points out that, thanks to tax incentives (first and foremost the Superbonus), despite the well-known difficulties with tax credits, our property stock has already achieved a clear improvement in efficiency, also in terms of environmental sustainability.
How can these costs be met?
Put like this, it seems that the projected costs largely exceed the financial means of a property owner or an average family.
However, the matter certainly does not end here. Nor does it in the intentions of the European Union.
An analysis by Giorgio Iacobone, Leonardo Reggio, Bruno Ruscio and Giorgio Giacomucci of Studio CBA, published in ‘IlSole24ore’, clarifies the provisions in the EU directive for making the efficiency process economically sustainable.
First point. Flexibility. ‘An important element’, the authors of the study write, ‘which deserves attention, concerns the flexibility granted to Member States in transposing this directive into national law, on the basis of the text currently available’.
‘The directive leaves Member States wide room for manoeuvre and flexibility regarding the measures and work to be adopted to achieve the above-mentioned objectives.
This flexibility stems from several factors including, not least, the substantial differences between the property stocks of the 27 Member States, also given the climatic and historical circumstances of each’.
Second point. Financial support. ‘A long passage of the approved text (the new green directive, ed.) stresses and urges the implementation of an effective financial support structure for carrying out such building work which, otherwise, would risk remaining just “good ideas” on paper’.
‘Implementing this structure requires the use not only of funding available from the EU, such as funding from the PNRR or the establishment of a dedicated fund called the “Energy performance renovation fund”, but it will also be strictly necessary for individual Member States to adopt a uniform financial and tax incentive plan that allows all those involved in this building renovation activity to have the resources needed to start the renewal’.
According to the authors, the lines of action in the planning of individual Member States will have to rest on three main pillars: finance, taxation and the production capacity of the companies involved.
In the next article we will see how, in practice.
