New project will investigate how prepared Swedish detached houses are for climate changes
Climate changes affect society in many ways. A project at Linnaeus University, funded with SEK 7.9 million by Formas, will analyse how these can affect detached houses in different climate zones in Sweden – and how this, in turn, can affect construction companies, insurance companies, real estate agencies and banks.
How prepared are detached houses in different climate zones in Sweden for the consequences that climate changes will inevitably bring? That is the question that the new project How prepared are Swedish detached houses to adapt to climate change? will try to answer.
“We will also develop a strategy for the detached housing sector in Sweden to improve their resilience to climate change”, says Brijesh Mainali, associate professor at the Department of Built Environment and Energy Technology at Linnaeus University.
The project is carried out in collaboration with Lund University in Sweden and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, as well as Svensk Fastighetsförmedling (real estate agency), Sparbanken Eken (bank), Klimatfastigheter Småland AB (deep renovation company; one-stop-shop) and Villaägarnas Riksförbund (houseowners’ association). It investigates what risks and consequences for houses that climate changes can lead to, but also, for example, how property prices are affected and how insurance companies calculate premiums.
“The results can be decisive for the ability of real estate agencies, insurance companies, banks and small and medium-sized construction companies to prepare or adjust their marketing strategies for detached houses”, says associate professor Mainali.
The project starts in January 2022 and will last for four years. It has received SEK 7.9 million in grant from Formas, a Swedish state research council for sustainable development. In total, projects for SEK 100 million were granted in the call Climate adaptation of the built environment. The projects are, for example, about flooding, how we adapt to a warmer climate with more frequent heat waves, and what this means for buildings in a new reality.