Cities and regions, give your citizens a home renovation gift box. Open a One-Stop Shop!
A local One-Stop Shop accompanies homeowners on their bumpy home renovation journey. Under one roof, it offers a large palette of services – from the initial advice, energy audit and project design, through the selection of companies and financing solutions to the coordination of renovation works and monitoring. A complex and risky project becomes simple and safe. One-Stop Shop is a real home energy renovation gift box you can offer to your citizens. But they are not the only ones who will be thrilled…
Do you want to give access to ambitious, high quality, safe and simple energy renovation to all your citizens? Do you want to boost your local economic growth ? Do you want to implement local policies complying with EU and national energy and climate goals ? Open a One-Stop Shop for a home energy renovation !
What is a
one-stop shop For home energy renovation?
advice
design
companies
renovation works
assurance
solutions
Depending on its objectives and business model (for example public, public-private, etc.), a One-Stop Shop can offer all or only part of these services to homeowners. One-Stop Shops covering all these services are particularly efficient for implementing global and ambitious renovations, not only single renovation measures.
Your
political win:
3 reasons to open a One-Stop Shop for home energy renovations
Homeowners are not energy renovation experts, they invest in ambitious energy renovation once in a lifetime. Most of them are lost in the jungle of complex technical measures, quotes from suppliers and ever-changing subsidy programmes.
Homeowners fear investing important sums and not achieving expected energy savings. They are scared of low quality renovation works. For example, in France, homeowners invest in average €43 000 in deep energy renovation of a single-family home and €24000 of a flat in a condominium.
Homeowners prefer to personally engage with a trustful and independent advisor who will support them or coordinate renovation works on their behalf. One-Stop Shops created or supported by cities and regions enjoy higher trust of homeowners as they act in general interest.
Many homeowners do not have sufficient funds to (pre)finance energy renovation works nor have they access to a bank loan (lower or irregular incomes, elderly, young people…). One-Stop Shops can offer a financing solution to these homeowners.
In 2023, 41 million of EU citizens (9.2% of the population) could not afford adequate heating. Energy poor households need particular protection from low quality housing and related social and health problems.
In Hungary, a 2021 survey reveals that the real estate value of family houses after renovation increases by 50%. In France, the impact of the energy label on the house value continues growing in 2023. The added value generated by homes with an A or B label, compared to similar D-label homes, varies from +6% in the inner suburbs of Paris to +18% in Western France. Similarly, for homes with energy-intensive labels (classes F and G), the loss in value continues to rise, particularly for flats.
In 2023, five French Third-Party Financing Companies (a specific model of One-Stop Shop, providing technical and financial solutions to homeowners) carried out 18,000 energy audits and 6,160 home renovation projects for €173.2 million.In 2023, Energiehuis Limburg - One-Stop Shop operating in the Province of Limburg, Belgium (covering 38 municipalities and 900 000 inhabitants) - carried out 2450 home visits and contracted 1683 home renovation loans, accounting for 53 million EUR.In 2017-2019, the city of Cecis, Latvia (15 000 inhabitants), invested 5 million EUR in energy renovation of 12 residential buildings.
One-Stop Shop stimulates demand for home renovation. Home renovation stimulates demand for local construction jobs and suppliers, in particular micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, which make up to 99.9% of the EU construction market. The Buildings Performance Institute Europe estimates that for every €1 million invested in energy renovation of buildings, an average of 18 local and long-term jobs are created in the EU.One-Stop Shops themselves employ staff directly. At its creation in 2018, Oktave (France) employed 1 person, in 2025 it employs some 62 full-time equivalents.Hauskunft Wien - One-Stop Shop operating in the city of Vienna, Austria (2 million inhabitants) - has tripled its staff since its creation in 2020, counting 12 employees. In 2023, they advised 7000 households and designed 3000 renovation projects.
In 2015, the energy bill of private residential buildings in the Grand Est region (France) reached 2 billion EUR. Its regional One-Stop Shop (Oktave) coordinates renovation works and follows a strict quality charter, guaranteeing that energy savings are achieved and energy bills reduced. Saved money stays in the region.
In renovated neighbourhoods, people enjoy better health, well-being and safety. This also means fewer sick days and higher worker productivity.
One-Stop Shop proactively detects and accompanies vulnerable households. Lower energy bills free up disposable income, increasing social stability.
One-Stop Shop is a flexible organisation with a clear mission to accelerate the implementation of your building renovation policies. One-Stop Shops, which see their staff and number of advised households exponentially growing, prove that their services are impactful. Moreover, they make the use of national, regional and local subsidies and funds more efficient.
The European Union aims at a Zero-emission building stock by 2050.
Member States have to increase the average energy performance of the national residential building stock by 20-22% by 2035 (binding target), with focus on the renovation of the worst-performing buildings.
Member States shall establish at least one one-stop shop for the energy performance of buildings per 80 000 inhabitants or one per region or in a location that can be reached within less than 90 minutes of average travel time (for more details, refer to Article 18 of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive).
Cities signing the Covenant of Mayors voluntarily engage to reduce GHG emissions from residential buildings, which account for about 31% of total GHG emissions in European cities (based on 2023 Covenant of Mayors Assessment).
Boilers powered by fossil fuels are being phased-out : no more subsidies to stand-alone boilers from 1 January 2025.
The Emission Trading System 2: households and companies will be the final payers for CO2 emissions from fuel combustion in buildings, road transport and additional sectors.
Testimonial
how to set up a one-stop shop and stimulate the renovation market?
Create favorable conditions for the development of local energy renovation market
Start from here. This is “a must”.
Cities and regions play a key role in the pre-investment phase. You raise awareness of homeowners about the benefits of energy renovation, provide them with the initial advice, and help them to move on from the planning to the implementation stage. This preparatory phase is time-consuming and with uncertain results, thus not profitable enough for private companies. This is particularly relevant in the immature market. National schemes with a strong brand and references to the state requirements and regulations could reinforce local initiatives and act as an entry point for homeowners (for example France Rénov in France).
Cities and regions are best placed to coordinate, build capacities and provide support to local market actors (e.g. through a market research, analysis of the building stock, identification of priority neighbourhoods for renovation) so that they can organise themselves and provide high-quality renovation works to homeowners.
Cities and regions can enforce strong and stable local policies and funding programmes that encourage global and deep renovation, including for vulnerable and low-income homeowners. They also advocate for effective and complementary policy measures at national and European levels.
Set up a One-Stop Shop for home energy renovation
FOR THOSE WHO ARE AMBITIOUS, READY TO INVEST HUMAN AND FINANCIAL RESOURCES AND TO BEAR RESPONSIBILITY FOR AMAZING RESULTS.
How to do it? It will not be simple. It will be long. All will depend on your local context and market actors. This is the reason why all the steps you need to take do not fit this page. But the results are worth it!
Discover how to set up a One-Stop Shop step-by-step here.
Actively support the One-Stop Shop once it is operational
Your One-Stop Shop is running but this is not the end of the journey.
Continue building capacities and providing support to local market actors (e.g. through market research, training) so that they can organise themselves and provide high-quality renovation works to homeowners.
Endorse the One-Stop Shop and promote it towards citizens and local companies (via letters, municipal bulletins, website, local media, etc.).
Actively identify the priority districts and houses to be renovated and invite the homeowners to join the renovation campaign.
Still not
convinced?
Explore Oktave - a One-Stop Shop of the Grand East region, France
- Created in 2018
- 1000 homes renovated
- 4,000 energy audits
- 200 partner craftsmen
- Staff growth: from 1 FTE in 2018 to 62 FTE in 2025
FOLLOW US!
