NF Habitat - NF Habitat HQE certification adapts to new market contours

Among the main developments, for the collective, the creation of 4 profiles allowing actors to achieve superior performance on specific themes: Circular Economy, Indoor Air, Biodiversity and Low Carbon. Those who wish can thus further enhance their response to the challenges of society, the environment, comfort and health.

Another major development: the adjustment of renovation requirements, for the collective as well as for the individual house, to make certification more accessible and thus allow a greater number of actors to initiate their projects and activity in the path of quality.

In this context of unprecedented health crisis, the challenges of housing have not disappeared. Quite the contrary: the recovery of the economy must integrate the quality requirement, borne by individuals and communities alike, associated with emerging building themes, such as low carbon or health.

The stake is double for the actors: to relaunch their activity, in a very difficult economic climate, while continuing to answer the technical challenges of the habitat and the societal expectations.

CERQUAL supports them in this way by developing their NF Habitat certification - NF Habitat HQE, multi-criteria certification covering the entire housing sector.

Creation of 4 certification profiles for collective real estate projects, both in construction and in renovation

Housing can no longer be thought of, designed and renovated without taking into account emerging themes such as the environment, comfort and health, confirmed and reinforced by the current health crisis.

To enable stakeholders who wish to do so, to further enhance their know-how in this area, CERQUAL offers them to achieve, in addition to their NF Habitat or NF Habitat HQE certification, superior performance on specific themes. 4 profiles were thus created:

Adjustment of renovation requirements, for the collective and the individual house

Essential to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, dependence on fossil fuels and the energy bill, the renovation of the existing, collective challenge, is a major issue for the housing sector.

NF Habitat certification - NF Habitat HQE, applied to renovation, places projects in a global approach, guaranteeing the effectiveness of the work carried out.

To allow a larger number of players to engage in this quality approach, CERQUAL has adjusted the NF Habitat - NF Habitat HQE requirements:

• For the collective:
  • The mandatory minimum requirements have been readjusted, refocused around a base of essential qualities, common to any NF Habitat certified building, in order to limit excess work. This fundamental foundation mainly relates to personal safety, security and minimum energy performance (150 kWh / m² / year.).
  • The HQE level valuation processes have been simplified.
• For the detached house, changes have been made to better meet the expectations of individuals and the practices of renovation professionals, taking into account all the fundamentals of a successful project, including meeting minimum technical requirements, whatever are the works and always consistent with the RGE mention.
• For all types of housing, better consideration of cases of heightening / extension: in collective for example, it is now possible to certify a heightening / extension alone or integrated into a global renovation project.

“Supporting professionals in a continuous process of quality improvement, consistent with current and future housing challenges, has always been CERQUAL's priority. This is even more true today, at a time when the entire industry is facing a crisis of unprecedented magnitude. Providing them with concrete solutions to help them relaunch their activity, while continuing to meet expectations in terms of quality, environment, health or comfort, as well as new technical paradigms, is fundamental. This is what we wanted to do by adapting our NF Habitat - NF Habitat HQE certification offer. Beyond that, the challenge is also to continue to contribute to digital transformation: this new benchmark will thus allow, in the short term, to fully integrate collaborative processes (BIM) in certification. " - Antoine Desbarrières - President of CERQUAL Qualitel Certification

New standard applicable no later than January 1, 2021