Does the Energy Label (EL) Matter in the Residential Market? A Stated Preference Analysis in Barcelona

Abstract

Energy performance in buildings has become a milestone in EU environmental policy in the last 15 years. Nonetheless, in some countries such as Spain the full acceptance of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive is still relatively rare and novel, with little evidence as to how relevant it is in the real estate market. There are different reasons for this phenomenon: on the one hand, the real estate crisis has paralyzed the completion of most of the works in new/refurbished efficient buildings (which renders it impossible to use revealed preference methods); on the other hand, information is not complete and the consumer's perception of the relevant cost/benefits could be incorrect. For this reason, assessing the trade-off between the energy label and other specific attributes of the housing market has become important. To that end, a choice experiment following an RPL (Random Parameter Logit) model was employed. This form is suitable to accommodate various empirical situations where the assumptions of the Conditional Logit model have to be relaxed. Results suggest that the Energy Label (EL) does matter in the real estate market in relation to other residential attributes. Marginal willingness to pay for an "A" label instead of an "E" is significantly higher than the stated savings in energy costs. The respondents' utility function seems to be also influenced by their educational level, as well as by their preference to own a house as opposed to renting it.

The Relevance of EPC Labels in the Spanish Residential Market: The Perspective of Real Estate Agents

“…The rationale of such a directive was to allow prospective users to learn about the financial and environmental benefits of efficient premises. Eventually, such benefits (i.e., energy savings, environment conservation, and sociological rewards) could capitalise on a larger willingness to pay and increased preference for efficient buildings [48]. Such increased interest might offset any additional production costs, resulting in more development and redevelopment of high-performance premises.…”

EPC Green Premium in Two Different European Climate Zones: A Comparative Study between Barcelona and Turin

“…As a future perspective of the study, it would be of scientific interest to include socio-economic and demographic variables in the Hedonic Model in order to control for the effect of neighborhood variables in the determination of the price of residential properties [71]. Further work could also consider the application of methods belonging to the stated preferences of families to the considered case studies in order to validate the obtained findings [72][73][74].…”

Preferencias de la demanda sobre los materiales de construcción del inmueble residencial: caso de estudio con el Análisis Conjunto Adaptativo

“…Respecto a este último destaca el Proyecto EnerValor (MINECO/FEDER-2015-63606-R) liderado por el Dr. Arq. Carlos Marmolejo Duarte que utiliza para una parte del desarrollo de su investigación el análisis conjunto basado en elección (CBC) (Marmolejo y Bravi, 2017;Spairani et al, 2019;Marmolejo, García y Spairani, 2020). Todo ello, con el objetivo de conocer la estructura de preferencias de los hogares en referencia a la importancia relativa que le dan a la eficiencia energética en la elección residencial, convirtiéndose en una ventaja competitiva y que permite ir hacia un modelo urbanístico y arquitectónico de desarrollo sostenible.…”