A new broad political agreement will forward investments to improve Danish public housing. These renovations will improve the climate impact from public housing, while thousands of tenants can look forward to getting improved living conditions.

The agreement secures that investments of EUR 4 billion by 2026 will be allocated for green renovation of Danish public housing. In 2020 and 2021 alone, around EUR 2.5 billion will be invested in renovating thousands of these.

“This agreement ensures that we can renovate a total of 72,000 homes in the short term. We have a unique public housing sector in Denmark that we must protect. Therefore, I am very pleased that a broad political majority is now behind an agreement that will significantly improve the public housing in Denmark and secure better housing for tenants until 2026. At the same time, we are in an unusual situation as a result of the COVID-19 crisis that has made it imperative that we advance investments of EUR 2.5 billion,” said Kaare Dybvad Bek, Danish Minister for Housing in a press release.

There are around 540,000 public houses in Denmark with 1 million tenants.

Through primarily energy efficiency renovations, the Danish Ministry of Housing estimates a reduction of up to 47,000 tonnes of CO2. The political agreement on housing is hailed by the Denmark’s largest industry organisation:

“Three things are achieved with this housing agreement. Numerous jobs will be created in the construction industry in the coming years. We will get more energy efficient and green housing, and we get to spend the money in a wise way,” said Elly Kjems Hove, Director at the Federation of Building Industries (DI Byg) to DI Business.

-Related solution: Energy Efficiency in New Buildings Toolkit

Biggest agreement for public housing ever

The new housing agreement is not only a huge investment in the green transition; it is also the biggest housing agreement ever made in Denmark to improve public housing. The renovation projects vary in all types of public housing from nursing homes, student housing, family apartments and townhouses. Up to 90 per cent of the renovations contain climate-friendly improvements.

“This agreement is not only the biggest total public housing agreement ever. It is also the greenest and represents a structural shift in the approach to renovations of public housing. Renovations of public housing will be markedly greener in the future. At the same time, we will test the sustainable solutions of the future such as large heat pumps and intelligent digital management of energy consumption in buildings, which can have a major impact on the green transition in the longer term,” said Dan Jørgensen, Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities in a press release.

The investments include a sum of over EUR 26 million to be used for testing and developing a more sustainable and digital public housing sector with lower CO2 emissions. Experiments from this pool will take place over the coming six years.

Photo credit: Katrine Bengtsson