Real Estate in a Post-Pandemic World: How Can Policies Make Housing More Enviromentally Sustainable and Affordable?

The real estate sector, including the residential and commercial market segments, is a heavy consumer of energy and, as a result, a sizeable source of emissions of greenhouse gases. This is primarily on account of the consumption of energy in heating and cooling systems, as well as in the use of domestic appliances. The construction, maintenance and thermal characteristics of buildings add to the sector’s energy consumption. Based on a review of scholarly and policy-focused work, this paper argues that decarbonisation strategies to meet agreed climate change targets will need to incorporate policies targeted to the specificities of the real estate sector. They include addressing split incentives among owner-occupiers, landlords and renters (in the private and social housing markets) for investment in home improvements and energy retrofitting; raising the standards of energy performance for new and existing properties through labelling/certification and other means; and reducing the cost of finance for needed investments while broadening access to the underserved population.