Cost Effectiveness of Sustainable Housing Investments

In the context of the sustainability of housing, the assessment of interventions in the stock is of primary importance. So, one of the first requirements for a decision support tooi in this field is that it can compare renovation to demolition followed by new construction. In this thesis the model of the Eco-costs/Value Ratio is elaborated for housing in a way that it meets this requirement. The elaboration of this approach connects eco-cost estimating to the traditional economic cost estimating in housing projects. This way, the assessment of the environmental burden of a plan can virtually be executed without extra calculation activities. The model can indicate whether a certain alteration in a building plan, aimed at reducing ecological burden, is cost-effective or not. Application in a case study shows that new construction and renovation need different approaches as to improving their performances in respect of ecological burden.