DREEAM replication tool used to map investment for more than 30 000 dwellings in France

The DREEAM replication programme has supported two French social housing providers – Strasbourg Ophéa and Valence Romans Habitat.

Ophéa is one of France’s largest social housing providers, managing 20 000 housing units, mostly apartment blocks between 1950 and 1980 (so-called “grands ensembles”), located in the Eurométropole de Strasbourg Area. Two-thirds of the housing stock has an energy label of D or worse whereas the national law has set the objective of label B+ by 2050. Based on its latest Strategic Portfolio Plan (PSP), Ophéa is considering investing an average of €30M€ a year in energy renovation for its portfolio in the coming 10 years. This investment forecast takes into account technical issues and comfort as well as energy performance but does not refer specifically to energy policy objectives. The DREEAM approach helps Ophéa in several ways: it allows them to review the method of the PSP critically and focus on energy objectives. It is also a way to organise the coming massive renovation effort of the next years in the most cost-efficient way, thanks to the typology determination method and clustering approach of DREEAM, reducing costs/ units, increasing renovation ambitions and attracting new financing from national and European levels.

Meanwhile, Valence Romans Habitat (VRH) manages over 10 000 units in the Department Drôme of France. VRH wanted to critically review its Strategic Portfolio Plan (PSP) realised in the early time of the merging and add the energy policy objectives in the approach, a part that was missing until now. They also wanted to be able to develop renovation packages for standardised building target groups to improve their efficiency. Working with the DREEAM replication tool, an accurate renovation plan was designed for 40% of the housing stock distributed across four priory target groups. A carbon emission reduction strategy was also tested to simulate the impact of energy source change in the district heating networks.