The Energy efficient Mortgages Action Plan (EeMAP) initiative has launched a website aimed at encouraging people to buy energy efficient properties.

EeMAP is a market-led and first-of-its-kind initiative which aims to design an ‘energy efficient mortgage’.

The initiative aims to demonstrate that energy efficiency has risk mitigation effects for lenders due to its impact in enhancing a borrower’s ability to service their loan and on the value of the property.

EeMAP is an initiative by the European Mortgage Federation – European Covered Bond Council (EMF-ECBC); UK Green Buildings Council; Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors; Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy; E.ON and SAFE Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. The project has received funding under the Horizon 2020 programme.

It was launched in June 2017 at a ‘Kick-Off Stakeholder Meeting’ in Rome, where over 100 European market stakeholders met with the European Parliament, the European Commission and local authorities. They discussed how EU property owners could finance energy efficiency investments in the European building stock.

The website hosts a series of videos summarising the debates held at the meeting and the comments of key supporters, including MEP Bendt Bendtsen, rapporteur on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

Luca Bertalot, EeMAP co-ordinator and secretary general of the European Mortgage Federation and European Covered Bond Council, said: “We are delighted to announce that the EeMAP website is now online.

“With a clear market-developed roadmap for the private financing of energy efficiency, the EeMAP initiative proposes concrete solutions to enhance energy efficiency in the EU, with market stakeholders supporting the leadership role that the EU has taken in tackling climate change.”