Building costs and energy efficiency of apartment buildings

Since 2001 the Deutscher Bauherrenpreis (German building owners award) awards exemplary new and renovated apartment buildings. An analyses of the recent projects shows that housing industry and engineers are a powerful team that is able to bring energy efficient and economic construction together. Construction costs of both new built and renovated apartment buildings are just marginally impacted by energy efficiency. Most significant impact on basic rents is the location of a building in a large city; buildings with low primary energy demand are even rented cheaper. This analysis of ambitious projects shows that blanket assertions that energy efficiency requirements would increase construction costs drastically are not valid. Studies about the economic efficiency of buildings should not only investigate costs of construction materials but also construction costs of real projects. Studies should also use elaborated statistical methods (or at least use bandwidths).