The condominium trustee: an emerging intermediary for energy renovation

• 37,6% Share of the residential sector in energy consumption in Île-de-France (pink, 2021)
• 127.923 condominiums in Île-de-France registered in the national register of condominiums in 2023. Less than 300 renovated from 2018 to 2022
• 2,5 million homes in the Paris region located in co-ownerships
• 1,2 million housing units in co-ownerships in Île-de-France classified E, F or G for their energy performance

A key player in energy renovation

A survey, led by the Paris Region Institute, was conducted among national representatives of the profession (professional unions, large real estate groups, etc.), and managers of Ile-de-France firms, in order to analyze the integration of this energy renovation issue into their activities.

Strategies for prioritizing projects

This dual survey shows a significant gap between the positions of the profession and the reality experienced by the trusteeship firms in the Paris region. It recalls the persistent poor image of this profession which weighs on its ability to support work projects.

In Île-de-France, trustees adopt various attitudes towards energy renovation, either a passive attitude, or even a rejection of the renovation policy, or the anticipation of regulatory deadlines, in particular by transforming the operation of their office.

The trustees then develop practices for analyzing their portfolio, anticipating dead ends and preferring to concentrate support resources on the co-ownerships deemed the most "promising" (buildings of the Trente Glorieuses with collective heating). As a result, the majority of their portfolio is quickly considered ineligible for overall renovation. Added to this are social criteria for assessing the potential for completion of a work project. The existence of a collective dynamic among the co-owners as well as an involved and driving union council is, in their eyes, decisive.

A lack of human resources and professionals in energy renovation

Due to a lack of sufficient human resources to manage several energy renovation projects at the same time, property managers are deploying a strategy to slow down new projects in order to prevent too many co-ownerships in the same portfolio from starting work at the same time. Hiring to improve the management of energy renovation is hampered by recruitment difficulties and uncertainty about the future dynamics of renovations. For property managers, there is also an insufficient supply of building professionals and also of public support offered by the FranceRénov' service. The lack of professionals in the energy renovation sector is a widely shared observation: the French Building Federation estimates the need for job creation in the building sector at 100.000 by 2026 and the Academy of Technologies even estimates that energy renovation requires the creation of 170.000 to 250.000 new jobs by 2030.

An actor who remains central to achieving renovation objectives

Taking into account the organizational constraints of trustees enriches the understanding of the obstacles to the massification of energy renovation of condominiums in the Paris region. It highlights the bottlenecks in the market, if public injunctions and incentives in favor of the demand for renovation are not followed by measures in favor of the development of a coherent support offer. The involvement of trustees as partners of the territories in the definition of intervention strategies on the condominium stock thus emerges as a central issue for the success of this policy.