Kickstarting the energy transition: opportunities, limitations and welfare implications of social landlords’ ambitions

The Netherlands, like countries throughout Europe, face enormous challenges realizing the goals set in the 2015 Paris agreement. Real estate, and more specifically residential real estate, bears the potential to contribute significantly to realizing climate goals. Towards meeting the Paris agreement goals the Dutch housing market will need to become energy neutral in 2050. Progress in making housing more energy efficient has been slow so far. Possibly as a result of the slow pace of investments in energy efficiency anticipated price decreases following the industrialization of energy solutions are yet to be realized. Housing associations have recently proposed to become the frontrunner in the energy transition on the housing market: economies of scale, a limited number of agents owning roughly 30% of the total housing stock, and fairly deep pockets make good arguments for this ambition. However, this ambition comes at a cost as well: how feasible is kickstarting the energy transition within the sector in charge of housing the lowest income households? What are the necessary conditions to make this kickstart work? And what are broader welfare implications, in terms of (reduced investment potential in) local living conditions, and affordability? Some preliminary findings of a mixed-methods study.