The EU-Energy Directive and Real Estate Appraisal: The Case of Austria

"In 2002 the European Union passed the directive 2002/91/EC, ìdirective on the energy performance of buildingsî, as a key element of its strategy to comply with the Kyoto protocol. The aim of the directive is to improve the energy efficiency of buildings in the area of the European Union. A key instrument of this regulation is the ìenergy performance certificateî which aims at improving the information about the energy efficiency of buildings with the intention to let the market establish a shadow price for the level of energy efficiency. Accordingly, real estate appraisers will have to take into account the aspect of energy efficiency when appraising a building or at least the availability of an energy performance certificate for this building. This paper looks at the way how the EU directive is reflected in real estate appraisals in Austria. Since the directive had to be implemented in their respective national legal frameworks by the member states, we will discuss the implementation in Austria after briefly reviewing the regulation at the EU-level. The main part of the paper will report the results of an empirical analysis where we analyze over 300 recent appraisals for how they incorporate or fail to incorporate energy efficiency considerations. This analysis is augmented by a survey of appraisers that investigates their views and practices in this respect.""