BPIE: Europe's buildings under the microscope - PU Europe

Figure 1A7 – Range of new build rates in the residential sector (2005-2010) where SF and MF
denote single family and multi-family houses, respectively.
Source: BPIE survey
2,5%
2,0%
1,5%
1,0%
0,5%
0,0%
LT LV SF NL MF SI FR LV MF PL UK SE MF RO BG SE SF BE
In terms of growth, annual rates in the residential sector are around 1% as depicted in Figure 1A7 which
shows the range of new build rates in the residential countries for a range of countries over the period
between 2005 and 2010.
Except The Netherlands (in the case of multi-family houses), all other countries experienced a decrease in
the rate of new build in recent years, reflecting the impact of the current financial crisis in the construction
sector. Notably, this impact seems to be more pronounced in countries in Central & Eastern Europe as is
the case in Latvia, Romania and Poland.
Non-residential buildings
The diversity in terms of typology within the non-residential sector is vast. Compared to the residential sector,
this sector is more complex and heterogeneous. It includes types such as offices, shops, hospitals, hotels,
restaurants, supermarkets, schools, universities and sports centres while in some cases multiple functions exist
in the same building. Moreover, differences from country to country are more pronounced, which in turn,
makes the cross-country comparison of the definitions of various building categories more challenging.
In our survey, we have considered the following broad categories: educational buildings, offices, hospitals,
hotels and restaurants, sports facilities, wholesale and retail trade services buildings and other types of energyconsuming
buildings. In each of these categories, a broad division between various subcategories has been
considered based on the list of Figure 1A8.
Figure 1A8 reveals the split between these categories at the European level. The retail and wholesale buildings
comprise the largest portion of the non-residential stock. These buildings are somewhat different from
others as heating and cooling conditions may differ substantially from other categories due to large areas of
wholesale buildings often being used only for storage purposes.
In addition to this, differences are also pronounced within this sector where there is no homogeneity in terms
of size, usage pattern (use hours) and construction style. This requires special attention when looking at the
retail and wholesale sub-sectors.
Office buildings are the second biggest category with a floor space corresponding to ¼ of the total nonresidential
floor space. Offices have similar heating and cooling conditions to residential buildings although
they are of shorter use. Similar usage pattern as offices are found with educational buildings which count for
less than 20% of the entire non-residential floor space.
Hospitals (7% of total non-residential floor space) have continuous usage patterns, where energy demand can
vary substantially depending on the services provided (from consultation rooms to surgery rooms).
32 | Europe’s buildings under the microscope