Recent surveys of the construction cycle predict that new construction will grow faster than repairs in the next few years. However, repair construction will remain larger than new production in euros. In Finland, there has been a transition to the European level, where renovation construction is more than half of house construction.
In recent years, the need for both new apartments and renovations has simultaneously increased. According to VTT's report, the need for housing and new construction are concentrated in the fourteen largest urban areas.
There is no reason to doubt that the future repair will also focus on the same areas, even if there is a need for basic improvements elsewhere. However, the risk-taking threshold rises very high in migration loss municipalities.
The goal of the renovation construction strategy 2007 – 2017 was that in 2017, the building stock in Finland will be expertly maintained, developed and repaired in accordance with the vision of the strategy. A lot of work has been done based on the strategy, and a lot has been achieved. However, in 2015, the strategy monitoring group expressed its concerns about the current state and future of the building stock.
The conclusions about the state of property management and repair are worrying. Even though repairs are increasing, the repair gap is increasing. One can justifiably ask whether the evaluation and valuation criteria have changed during the ten-year period in such a way that it is necessary to seek a new, wide-ranging perspective.
One point of departure would be realized and predicted population development, changes in housing needs and family sizes, internal migration and immigration. Another point of departure would be technical issues: environmental and energy efficiency, renewable energy, almost zero-energy construction, the importance of the indoor environment, and automation and digitalization.
The core question is whether, taking into account the above-mentioned viewpoints, everything and everywhere should and can be repaired, or whether a bulldozer would be a more economically sound solution.
Renovation construction focuses on building technology, which has a shorter lifespan than structures, but has a greater importance in terms of creating conditions and life cycle costs. The industry must find effective solutions, techniques and measures to increase the number of plumbing, IV, cooling and energy-saving repairs and to keep the work in the hands of HVAC companies.
For old buildings, suitable products that shorten working time and renovation concepts that disturb the residents as little as possible must be developed, as well as customized services from group repairs to individual apartments.
The strategic problem of building technology is that, being fragmented, it has not received the weight it deserves in terms of volume and final results in the field of construction, for example, in new alliance and cooperation models, the building technology contractor has been sidelined.
Building engineering must raise its ambition to a new level, advocacy must be developed through closer cooperation. An interim goal can be set that in the future a separate main player is chosen for building technology and a separate one for construction. The goal should be to first select a building engineering contractor for the site and then a construction contractor.
The industry's challenge is to help the customer understand the importance and value of building technology.
Author: Jari Syrjälä
CEO
LVI-Technical Contractors LVI-TU ry
The blog text was originally published In Taloteikniak magazine.
Write a comment