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basics:affordability:housing_companies_successful_cost_efficient_implementation

Housing Companies: Successful cost efficient implementation

Author: Harald Malzer

Introduction Neue Heimat Tirol (NHT)

NEUE HEIMAT TIROL (NHT) was founded in the year 1939. This date and our name are steeped in history. The NHT was founded to create new housing for the many thousands of people displaced by the war (mainly from what was then South Tyrol). Several thousand homes were built throughout the province in the so-called “South Tyrolean settlements”. They were characterised by a lack of materials but high quality architecture, so that people from small mountain villages could feel at home even on the outskirts of the cities of the time. The quality of the buildings is such that some of them are still in use today.

History and purpose

Today the shareholders are 50% the state of Tyrol, 50% the city of Innsbruck. However, the company is run as a private limited company. At the present NHT is involved in the real estate management of more than 20.000 apartments. This includes around 6,000 passive house residential units that have already been built. NHT is represented with approx. 1.500 buildings in over 200 Tyrolean communities. As NHT operates in the heart of the Alps, our highest building is located at over 1600 meters above sea level. These municipalities and cities are NHT´s clients. NHT constructs buildings according to the needs of the municipalities, and owns and manages them for their entire life cycle (usually 60 to 80 years). Who lives and works in the NHT´s buildings and apartments is decided solely by the municipality administrations. NHT is therefore a 100% non-profit property developer providing a service to the public.

NHT has 165 employees, which includes departments for new construction and major refurbishment (project management, building technology, construction management, construction accounting), property management, accounting and the legal department.

As a stand-out feature, NHT has its own working group for quality assurance in energy efficiency and sustainability as well as national and international research projects. NHT´s social role as the largest developer, builder and manager of apartments in Tyrol and western Austria is characterised by a special concern for families, the economically disadvantaged, the needy and the elderly. In this sense, vulnerable groups also make up the majority of NHT´s customers NHT is willing to support and protect. NHT is 100% subject to the very strict and strictly controlled non-profit law for property developers in Austria. This non-profit law is now almost a standalone feature in Europe. Similar systems have been privatised in many countries, which lead to overpriced rents, poor architecture, often poor building quality and materials and little interest in energy-efficient and therefore operating cost-optimised buildings.

In Austria, non-profit housing is co-financed by all Austrian Citizens through a small monthly tax. This is then transferred back to the social housing sector through a housing subsidy organised in a slightly different way by each of the federal provinces. The Tyrolean housing subsidy is one of the most progressive in Austria in terms of energy efficiency requirements. No non-profit housing developer is allowed to work for profit. However, they must always work according to the principle of cost recovery. This means that during the entire financing period (usually 30-35 years), our tenants only pay back as rent what the buildings actually cost. Of course, this is even easier if there are hardly any energy costs.

Why combine energy efficiency and a high standard of living with social housing?

Everything that can be saved in operating and energy costs can be invested in a better personal future. The high quality of NHT´s buildings and facilities gives people from social disadvantaged backgrounds the best possible opportunity to open up socially. NHT´s aim: living in an NHT flat does not exclude you but makes you happy and proud. Social housing in the NHT means that my home has the same high standards as the economic average of the population (often higher) - no social demarcation in residential ghettos. Children have a healthy home with ideal learning conditions to break through “inherited educational levels” and thus social barriers.

What is the reason for NHT´s Passive house experience and development

For many years, ecological sustainability has been one of the three pillars of the corporate philosophy of the NEUE HEIMAT TIROL. Now NHT is taking a pioneering role in various energy-related areas. The motivation beside that: Low rents and at the same time stable operating and energy costs enable low-income earners to have a permanent, high-quality and healthy living environment.

On the way to implement the Passive House Standard for every project

After many lost years with half-hearted guidelines and efficiency requirements, the necessary climate protection in the building sector has finally arrived almost everywhere. ESG, EU Green Deal, Taxonomy Regulation, CSRD and the subsequent national and regional requirements suddenly present us with an almost insurmountable challenge in the building sector. The Passive House Standard, however, has been addressing many of these issues for 30 years!

It is the most consistent and, for us, the most honest efficiency standard for buildings. Why?

  • It works (as shown by our many monitorings in research projects).
  • It is also easily financed in social housing.
  • It adapts continuously and realistically to technical developments and climate changes (renewable energies, heat pump supply, global warming).
  • It offers solutions that also work in high-alpine regions.
  • It is economical.
  • It is economical.
  • It is economical.

So in 2010 it was not the decision of the NHT management to put on a “green cloak” - no, after and with our first certified passive house residential complex “Lodenareal” it became quite clear that the maintenance costs of a passive house were much lower than before. No more complex mold remediation after moving house and actually extremely low energy costs. The NHT always carries out a resident survey about a year after moving in. The “Lodenareal” achieved a satisfaction rate of 95% for the first time in the NHT's history. So the NHT decision “From now on only in passive house standard!” was first and foremost an economic one.

But it was a long-term process to get there:

Figure 1: Brief history of Passive House Development at NHT | © NHT

First project close to Passive House Mitterweg in 1997 In 1997, NEUE HEIMAT TIROL built the first project close to the passive house (“Mitterweg” residential complex), with a heating requirement (ref OIB) of 21kWh/m²a. There we realized comfort ventilation including heat recovery for the first time. It was not a success story. The technology was new and not yet fully developed. The planners were not yet suitably experienced and trained. Nevertheless, the NHT stuck to the concept of residential ventilation. True to the motto: Only those who dare, win!

Residential complex Lohbach in 2000 As a next step, we realized the “Lohbach” residential complex in the year 2000 - heating demand (ref OIB) on average at 17 kWh/m²a. The national calculation OIB and no PHPP planning were used at that early time.

Figure 2: Residential complex “Lodenareal” - With the construction of the multi-storey residential building at the Lodenareal, Innsbruck, a new chapter in passive house construction was opened 2009 | © NHT

Lodenareal in 2009 Then first quality proved and certified passive house “Lodenareal” residential complex with 200 apartments was handed over to more than 350 tenants in 2009. For years it was the biggest Passive House complex in the world. As we know now, this was the game changer! Read more about project

Further increasing Energy Efficiency: Complex Vögelebichl in 2015 After the first successful passive house projects by the NHT, the Tyrolean housing subsidy realized: with these subsidies, better, healthier and more efficient houses than business as usual can be built, funding requirements were thereby raised to achieve better buildings.

Year after year, the regional housing subsidy tightened the requirements. Whenever NHT had demonstrated with another milestone project, like Austria's first certified Passive House PLUS residential complex “Vögelebichl” in 2015, that highest energy efficiency can be achieved economically (usually verified by accompanying research projects), the boundary conditions and requirements of the Tyrolean housing subsidy were tightened.

Figure 3: Austria´s first certified Passive House PLUS residential complex “Vögelebichl” in Innsbruck; 2015 | © NHT

Since then, the NEUE HEIMAT TIROL builds almost exclusively passive house quality houses according to the Tyrolean housing subsidy regulation till 2018.

How to take this even further?

In 2018, the NHT decided to take another decisive step towards quality assurance. A separate “Energy Efficiency and Sustainability” department was set up. From then on, the NHT's own highly qualified employees were responsible for the further cost-optimised development of the “Social Passive House”. Based on the realisation: “The first 80% has now been achieved with only 20% of the expected effort. Now it's time to get the last 20% with another big effort”.

  • Project planning with PHPP and designPH was now widely adopted.
  • Construction with few or no thermal bridges was further promoted.
  • The installation of windows in the insulation layer became standard.
  • Passive shading was optimised to cope with steadily rising summer temperatures.
  • Low temperature systems have been developed in conjunction with sophisticated heat pump strategies.
  • In addition, distribution losses in central heat supplies were significantly reduced.
  • Renewables energy generation on a large scale is today´s standard.
  • Even gentle cooling using groundwater wells and heat pumps was introduced.

So many small steps but the make the difference.

Next Step: Passive House PLUS as minimum ambition

Finally, in 2020, at a time when many other non-profit housing developers had to stop new construction activities due to exploding construction costs (world trade routes collapsed due to COVID), NEUE HEIMAT TIROL took a step ahead by upgrading its buildings standard from Passive House to Passive House PLUS. Especially in times of the subsequent energy price crisis (Russian invasion of Ukraine), this efficiency standard once again showed its strengths!

Figure 4: 2022 Europe´s biggest Passive House PLUS residential quarter by NHT; Rum/Innsbruck | © NHT

A New Situation

The demand for energy is increasing on a worldwide scale. The situation on the energy markets is getting complicated and energy prices are rising. The first wars due to lack of resources are coming considerably closer to Europe. The increasing combustion of fossil fuels is dramatically accelerating the climate crisis. What is the responsibility of a non-profit property developer now? Has it changed? And how?

Regarding continued affordable housing and climate protection as top priority, only the consistent increase of energy efficiency in buildings will enable us to supply our buildings with renewable energy largely regionally. The logical consequence of this is to build Passive House PLUS buildings. The aim of the Passive House PLUS standard for NHT´s new-built projects or renovation projects is to generate as much renewable energy in NHT´s owned building as is consumed for its operation. Heating, hot water and comfort ventilation can thus be covered by renewable energy. Often there is even some electricity left over, so the tenants can also benefit directly from solar power through a special “tenant renewable electricity model”.

Which steps to take to insure highly energy and cost-efficient buildings

Well-coordinated and monitored planning and execution in the almost seamless interaction of designPH, PHPP and our in-house BIM department contributes to manageable, easy-to-predict and ultimately adhered-to construction costs.

Cost-optimized, energy-efficient and sustainable construction does not begin in the planning phase but much earlier!

Since Passive House PLUS does not necessarily mean lower investment costs, the earliest project development phase (architecture competition, preliminary design phase) is now more of a focus. By 2020, the NHT successfully started to develop and introduce its own evaluation procedure for architectural competitions. Decisions made in the preliminary design or competition phase regarding

  • Compactness
  • Orientation
  • window proportion
  • self-shading

have, as experience has shown, a decisive influence on the efficiency standard to be achieved and the associated construction and operating costs. In order to create an objective decision-making basis for the developer and the competition jury as early as possible, NHT has developed a reliable evaluation procedure. Again this is mainly based on designPH and PHPP. In this process, all submitted projects are examined for their ability to meet the Passive House Plus standard using simplified thermal 3D building simulation. For all submissions, the component qualities are then raised to the PH Plus benchmark where necessary, limited by an economic maximum. This makes it clear which projects achieve the PH Plus slightly, moderately or not at all. Since the construction costs are also recorded in parallel with the determined component qualities, a comparison of the cost potential can also be carried out in the same step. This makes it possible for the first time to check the achievement of the required NHT efficiency criteria in the context of the resulting investment cost potential very reliably and on a scientific basis during the competition process.“



See also

basics/affordability/housing_companies_successful_cost_efficient_implementation.txt · Last modified: 2024/10/30 10:46 by yaling.hsiao@passiv.de