Energy-Efficient Renovations in Rental Housing: Exploring the Role of Ownership Regimes

The relationship between the actions of different types of property owners in the housing market with regard to energy efficiency renovations, on the one hand, and the consequences of these strategies for tenants, on the other, has been largely overlooked in both social science and environmental research (Vollmer and Michel, 2020). The ecological housing issue involves analysing and understanding the closely linked socio-ecological transformation processes in the housing market. Of particular importance are the effects of 'ecologisation' and 'financialisation' (Heeg, 2017). Changes in the housing market are of great relevance for future societal developments, as they can influence path dependencies, so that the present empirical data on energy-efficient renovations, accompanied by a theoretical foundation, help to make sense of different property owners' strategies. This paper provides relevant insights into the dynamics and decision-making processes of the housing sector. The analysis of the social dimensions of the ecological transformation of the housing sector in Berlin over the last decade aims to uncover tensions and highlight transformative forces capable of addressing them. A social science perspective that views real estate actors as institutions with strategies and political goals would help to make the transition more comprehensible and to capture the contradictions involved.