ING, ABN Amro and Rabobank argue for a climate label on homes – CASA

A standardized climate label should ensure that a home buyer can take climate risks into account when deciding whether or not to purchase a home. Homes with greater climate risks will become less valuable.

The largest banks in the Netherlands expect housing to become much more expensive in the coming years. Homes must adapt to climate change, senior economists at the three banks wrote in their joint report. Without intervention, especially from the government, the differences between rich and poor will become greater. According to them, some homeowners need help to make their homes climate resilient.

Making homes energy efficient is particularly expensive. According to ING's Marieke Blom, this will cost about 1% of GDP every year until 2050. In 2022, GDP reached more than 53,000 euros per inhabitant. “Spending on poorer energy labels often pays for itself through the energy bill and higher home value, but seeing that is very challenging and people fear hassle,” she says. “And making a home completely energy neutral is often unprofitable.”

The second largest cost item is adaptation to floods, droughts and heat, which costs about 0.2 percent of GDP each year. This is followed by repair of sagging or rotting foundations due to drought and subsidence.

The value of a home could decline if the potential consequences of climate change are significant where the home is located. Values ​​could actually increase if homes were built in a way that they could withstand weather conditions caused by climate change.

Differences can lead to division in society, warns Rabobank's Esther Barendregt. “This is because home hunters who have less money to spend are more likely to buy a home in a neighborhood where prices are lower, perhaps without realizing that flooding or foundation damage occurs more often. Or because neighborhoods where homeowners have “Where more to spend measures are taken that reduce the value of homes they actually go up.”

Leading economists also point out that if owners do nothing, the next buyers, often young people, risk running into the costs of damage to the home and climate insulation. Economists want the government, mortgage providers, insurers and valuers to share information about climate risks and home costs. For this reason, there must be a uniform climate label to ensure homebuyers are able to take climate risks into account when making their decision to purchase a home. They also want to include damages and other costs in the home foundation repair fund. Afghan National Police