Bankers värdering av energieffektiviserande renoveringar vid kreditbeslut- En kvalitativ undersökning av de svenska storbankernas värdering av hållbara renoveringar på det befintliga fastighetsbeståndet

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that there are a number of barriers that hinder the construction of energy efficient housing, one of the barriers being financial difficulties. Some real estate companies have been experiencing a lack of financial means as a key issue for carrying out renovations, as a consequence, the number of sustainable renovations have not been carried out in the required pace. This thesis aims to describe how Swedish banks value energy efficiency in their internal credit analyses when issuing a loan to finance a real estate company’s sustainable renovation of an existing building. Data has been collected through a qualitative method using semi structured interviews with three of the four big banks, and three small to medium sized real estate companies. Our findings show that, although banks find it difficult to value, they are able to adapt their credit analysis to fit the data of sustainable renovations, but since it often includes new technology, they do so with cautiousness. Despite theoretical difficulties to obtain bank loans for sustainable renovations, no participant in our study has experienced this type of difficulties. Also, these difficulties are not unique for sustainable renovation, which means it shouldn’t be any more difficult to finance this kind of renovation than any other kind.