Neue Heimat Tirol illustrates sustainability of passive houses

 

Environmental impact of Lodenareal passive house residential complex in Innsbruck

Mentioning affordable housing and passive houses in the same breath still meets with scepticism
in the industry. For the first time ever, this study made a comparison between red and grey energy. The construction of the multi-storey Lodenareal residential building by NEUE HEIMAT TIROL (NHT) represents a new chapter in the further development of passive house building. This environmentally-friendly and sustainable way of building has now become standard for NHT. 

The TU Vienna study proves that the construction of a passive house and therefore the consumption
of grey energy still demonstrates a high level of optimisation. The level of individual energy consumption by the residents is also remarkable. This needs to be tackled by providing information and advice, highlighting individual potential savings and by means of consistent reporting of the energy footprint for the building as a whole.

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Klaus Lugger and Wolfgang Amann present the Austrian Housing Handbook 2016

The Austrian Housing Handbooks have been documenting now for more than two decades the development of Austrian housing landscape. What Klaus Lugger conceived in 1995 together with the Studienverlag Innsbruck  is issued since the edition in 2013, in partnership with Wolfgang Amann. The new edition follows the proven pattern of previous ones in structure and design.

The 'manual' showcases that Austria has a quantitatively and qualitatively very good housing provision today. This is of particular importance given the current demographic situation with a very strong influx of asylum seekers. The housing cost burden rate is 18% of household disposable income, well below the EU average.

Particularly in lower income groups housing costs are significantly lower than in most of neighboring countries. The link between public housing supply and a well-developed housing assistance system make living for the vast majority of the population affordable. Good performance even as far as residential construction is concerned may be documented, too.

The continuity of new residential construction is socially and politically as important as economic policy. Because they both stabilize the development of the housing markets and the construction industry as a core sector of Austrian economy. A guarantee for this stability is the system of housing subsidies and non-for-profit housing. At a public expenditure well below the European average, this system generates significant number of dwellings at an affordable cost for the individual households.