Belgian Walloon region will spend almost 30% of its Recovery funding for advanced renovation of public buildings and social housing.
In a nutshell:
- Nearly 30% will be spent to renovate old public building and social housing
- Support and develop the renovation sector in Wallonia
- Start innovative neighborhood and building block scale private renovation
Details:
The renovation rate in Wallonia has remained low in the last years, even though the building stock remains one of the most inefficient in Europe. Yet, the Wallonia region sees the potential for the majority of old houses built with qualitative materials and could be revived with deep renovation.
Kicking-off the Walloon renovation wave will require comprehensive policy reforms on all aspects, from fiscality to urban planning. These policy reforms should be supported with large amounts of public financial support, as renovations are not economically attractive in the short term. Acknowledging these challenges, the Walloon RRP puts nearly 30% of the EU recovery money to the renovation of the buildings and housing sector.
A large part of this money will finance different building renovation programs, including for social housing. A side benefit will be the strengthening of the renovation sector in Wallonia, which is currently underdeveloped. This will hopefully create the context to extend the renovation wave to the private buildings stock in a second stage.
The Walloon Recovery funding aims to push for the upscaling of buildings renovation. To go from a single house renovation to a larger scale (whole street or housing block renovation in one time) is crucial to make the renovation wave more affordable and effective, especially in the densely builded areas in Wallonia. This innovative way of bringing all the building owners together, joining up for a single large scale renovation project is a unique benefit that the EU’s recovery funding will bring to Wallonia.
