This analysis outlines the economic opportunity for Europe’s building sector, which could help mitigate economic damage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The total amount to trigger a significant scaling up of the renovation rate and depth would add up to €90 billion per year, allocated to support mostly deep renovation, advisory services for owners/investors and technical assistance in member states, as well as innovation in serial renovation solutions. This funding would support an annual investment in mostly deep renovation of € 243 billion in EU-27.

€73 billion/a should be allocated in support of building renovation, while an additional €13.8 billion/a should be provided in an innovation fund to scale up serial renovation of buildings on an industrial scale.

A significant push for serial renovation is necessary to increase speed and depth of renovation while keeping the required work force at a realistic level. Industrial/serial renovation delivers cost-effective net-zero renovation at high quality by making use of prefabricated building modules, innovative financing and business models, and digitalisation across the value chain. This paper presents an estimate to contribute to the discussion and to support decision-making.

All figures presented in this paper are related to either medium or deep renovation so that renovation efforts are aligned to the requirements of the Paris Agreement.