9 June 2017
The Energy efficient Mortgages Action Plan (EeMAP) Initiative is being presented at a Kick-Off Stakeholder Meeting with over 100 participants and panellists, representing a cross sector of key market players such as European and international investors, issuers, lenders, property valuers, academics, energy suppliers, buildings experts and SMEs.
Together with the European Parliament, the European Commission and local authorities, these market participants will discuss the potential to channel private capital into energy efficiency investments, supporting EU property owners in the renovation of their residential and commercial properties and helping the EU institutions to bridge the investment gap to deliver on its energy savings targets. The designing of common best practices for energy efficient mortgages at European level will free up cross border private sector capital, generating significant fiscal relief for Member States.
With more than 210 million units (equal to 89%) of the EU´s residential building stock, for example, having been built before the year 2001, substantial efforts are required to channel private capital into bringing energy inefficient homes in line with new energy standards. From a savings perspective, a renovated house that moves from an ‘E’ to a ‘B’ grade in its energy performance certificate (EPC) will save a family an estimated EUR 24,000 over 30 years, according to an analysis of 365,000 house sales in Denmark last year.
Recent market research conducted by the EMF-ECBC reveals a strong willingness among financial institutions to enter the energy efficiency finance market.
The EeMAP Initiative is market-led and first of its kind, and aims at the design and delivery of an “energy efficient mortgage”, intended to incentivise the acquisition of energy efficient properties or the improvement of the energy efficiency of existing properties by way of preferential financing conditions linked to the mortgage.
At the heart of the Initiative is the assumption that energy efficiency has a risk mitigation effect for banks as a result of its impact on a borrower’s ability to service their loan and on the value of the property. This means that energy efficient mortgages will represent a lower risk on the balance sheet of banks and could, therefore, qualify for a better capital treatment. Lower capital requirements deliver a strong incentive for banks to enter the market and, as a result, drive a broader incentive chain, in which all stakeholders, including EU citizens, issuers, investors and society as a whole, derive a concrete benefit.
More broadly, the EeMAP Initiative delivers the following outcomes:
Luca Bertalot, EeMAP Coordinator & EMF-ECBC Secretary General, said: “In the context of the European Commission’s Capital Markets Union Mid-Term Review published yesterday, the EeMAP Initiative represents a concrete step towards a clear cross-sectoral roadmap for the private financing of energy efficiency and, as such, a strong, market response to the challenge presented by climate change, underlining the foresight and proactivity of the stakeholders involved. The Initiative will encourage the energy efficient renovation of the EU’s building stock, in support of the EU’s ambitious energy savings targets and its commitment to the COP 21 Agreement and is therefore of strategic importance from an environmental, financial, and economic perspective.”
For more information about the EeMAP Initiative, please visit the EeMAP Website: www.energyefficientmortgages.eu
(You will find the list of all the supporters of this Initiative in the above PDF version of this press release)
Established in 1967, the European Mortgage Federation (EMF) is the voice of the European mortgage industry on the retail side of the business, representing the interests of mortgage lenders at European level.
