The petition demands a right to reuse for existing buildings based on three key pillars: (I) tax reductions for renovation works and reused materials, (II) fair rules to assess both potentials and risks of existing buildings, and (III) new values for the embedded CO2 in existing structures.
Here is the organization’s website: https://www.houseeurope.eu/
On paper it is. It is not working well though.
I’m not an economist, but I really doubt that it would work. When there was a shock on the gas market, the electric companies raised the prices and that pushed down the consumption, but with fixed prices the electric companies would have needed taxpayer’s money to integrate the losses (or cut costs like jobs). A new player would struggle to enter in the market if it was unable to lower the prices and build a base of customers. On the other side, a company would not be able to offer premium services at higher costs.
It seems nice on paper, but the effects may be negative for everyone.
It has a similar effect. If you force the renovations, you eat the profits and people may leave the business exactly as it happened when they fixed the prices. The effect may be a shortage of affordable houses.
The case of The Netherlands is basically like that. You own an apartment that used to be rented out for €1.200, but with the new rules the price dropped to €800. You are not forced to do anything, but doing the math your conclusion could be that it’s better to sell and invest somewhere else.
Regarding the renovations, last thing I’ve heard is that by 2030 (or maybe 2035, I don’t remember now) it will be illegal to rent places below a certain energy class (a relatively low one, but it will require at least modern windows). Those expenses will trigger the reasoning I described above. Some people will sell and there will be less affordable houses, other people will renovate and increase the rents to recover the costs so, again, less affordable houses.