Cost-Efficient Refurbishment of Vacant Building Units

Most studies for the economic evaluation of refurbishment measures lean on energy efficiency or energy savings. From the owner's point of view, the question arises whether and in what form improvement measures that increase the quality or the value of the property are economically profitable. This means in this case already used units, which have a potential of rent increases due to improvements. In practice, such investigations are carried out in a detailed level. The owner incurs expenses as a result before he can make the decision to carry out in-depth investigations into possible renovations. The aim of this paper is an investigation of possible refurbishment measurements on a general level. Based on three quality levels and four defined conditions, 24 possible maintenance scenarios can arise for an existing building or component. The developed approach needs only a few input parameters, especially the quality as well as the condition and statistical key values to calculate the economic efficiency. The methodology of this technical-economic approach has been carried out on 30 vacant building units. They are all located in city centres. The empirical study determines the typical cost drivers for the refurbishment measurements and their economic viability.