Renovating multi-family apartment buildings (MFABs) is essential to reducing energy poverty, improving energy efficiency and meeting Europe’s climate objectives. Yet delivering renovation in these buildings presents particular challenges, from limited access to information and financing to complex collective decision-making among homeowners.

This briefing brings together findings from three ComActivate policy analyses and the experience of four local one-stop shops (OSS), known as Resource Centres within the project, in Bulgaria, Hungary and Lithuania. It examines the gap between EU and national policy ambitions and their implementation, highlighting the barriers that prevent vulnerable households and worst-performing buildings from accessing renovation support.

The briefing focuses on four interconnected areas:

• Better targeting of support: Why gaps in data and coordination make it difficult to identify and prioritise the households and buildings most in need.
• Stronger support for residents: How one-stop shops can guide homeowners through the renovation process and help overcome the challenges of collective decision-making in apartment buildings.
• Neighbourhood-level planning: How Neighbourhood Energy Sufficiency Roadmaps can help municipalities coordinate renovation, clean energy and social measures.
• Long-term institutional and financial support: Why one-stop shops and neighbourhood planning need stable funding, clear mandates and integration into national renovation strategies.

With National Building Renovation Plans and Social Climate Plans creating opportunities to strengthen renovation delivery, the briefing highlights how national governments and municipalities can build on existing experience to make support more accessible, coordinated and effective.

Download the briefing to explore the policy gaps, practical lessons and opportunities for ensuring that renovation reaches the households and communities that need it most.