Motivation and Research Question

The building sector is considered a key lever for achieving climate targets, with the existing residential building stock playing a central role. Condominium owners' associations (in german: „Wohnungseigentumsgemeinschaften" or short „WEG") are of particular importance in this context, as a significant share of multi-storey residential buildings is organised under this legal form. At the same time, refurbishment processes in WEGs are particularly difficult to implement due to the large number of stakeholders involved, complex decision-making logics, and high financial commitments. These factors often lead to necessary measures being delayed, only partially implemented, or not implemented at all.

Against this background, the motivation for the project "WEG zur Zukunft" emerged. The aim was to systematically analyse the specific barriers, needs, and potentials of condominium owners' associations and to develop practice-oriented solutions. The project was based on the assumption that technological innovations alone are not sufficient to drive transformation in the existing building stock, particularly in owner-occupied housing. Rather, integrated approaches are required that equally take legal, organisational, communicative, and financial aspects into account.

The central research question was therefore: How can condominium owners' associations be empowered to successfully manage transformation processes—from planning and decision-making through to actual implementation—in order to significantly increase refurbishment rates and thus their contribution to climate neutrality?

Initial Situation / Status Quo

The analysis of the status quo reveals a considerable need for action. A large share of the Austrian housing stock requires energy-efficient refurbishment, while actual refurbishment rates fall well short of climate policy targets. Condominium owners' associations in particular exhibit structural inertia: decision-making processes are lengthy, responsibilities are often unclear, and knowledge of technical, legal, and financial options is fragmented.

Property management companies play a central interface role but are often heavily burdened and do not always possess sufficient resources or specialised expertise in climate-oriented transformation. Owners, in turn, are frequently uncertain about costs, benefits, funding opportunities, and the legal implications of refurbishment measures. Overall, there is a lack of integrated, practiceoriented support services that combine technical, legal, organisational, and communicative aspects.

Project Content and Objectives

The project "WEG zur Zukunft" aimed to provide practical action-oriented knowledge and implementation tools for condominium owners' associations.

Specific objectives included:

• the systematic analysis of challenges, actor roles, and decision-making logics in WEGs
• the identification of success and failure factors in existing refurbishment concepts
• the clear and accessible presentation of legal frameworks and (innovative) financing instruments
• strengthening property management companies as process facilitators and activating and empowering owners
• transferring the results into scalable, practice-oriented support formats, for example via the project website www.weg-zur-zukunft.at

Methodological Approach

The project followed a transdisciplinary, co-creative research and development approach that systematically combined quantitative and qualitative methods.

Key methodological components consisted of:

• a quantitative online survey of property management companies and other actors within the WEG environment
• qualitative in-depth analyses through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with owners, property managers, specialist planners, and other experts
• the analysis of national and international model projects
• the evaluation of legal and institutional frameworks
• the development of a prototypical refurbishment process with decision pathways

The continuous exchange with practice partners and stakeholders enabled feedback loops and thus ensured that the results were application-oriented and closely aligned with real-world conditions.

Results and Conclusions

The project WEG zur Zukunft clearly shows that the greatest challenge in the thermal–energy refurbishment and decarbonisation of condominium buildings lies less in technical feasibility than in organisational, legal and social framework conditions. The analysis of decision-making processes in condominium owners' associations demonstrates that complex ownership structures, heterogeneous interests, and uncertainties regarding costs, benefits and legal issues constitute key barriers.

A central finding is the crucial role of communication and process design. Refurbishment projects often fail not due to a lack of technical solutions, but because of insufficient transparency, inadequate preparation of information, and the absence of a translation of technical and legal content into language that is understandable for owners. Engaged individuals within the associations and proactive property management companies prove to be decisive success factors. At the same time, it became evident that property management companies are often structurally overstretched and that committed owners frequently lack the necessary know-how. Both groups express a need for additional support measures, such as qualification programmes or exchange formats.

Furthermore, the project shows that while existing legal regulations do provide scope for action, they are associated with considerable uncertainty in practice. In particular, majority decisions, toleration obligations and financing issues quickly reach their limits in the context of decarbonisation measures. The findings therefore underline the need for legal clarification and further development of the condominium law framework.

Outlook

Building on the project results, there is significant potential to further disseminate and scale the developed approaches. Future activities should focus in particular on the institutional anchoring of support services, the further development of qualification programmes for property management companies and owners, and the advancement of innovative financing models.

In addition, closer integration with municipal and regional climate strategies is recommended, as well as the continuous refinement of the provided tools based on practical application experience. "WEG zur Zukunft" thus makes a substantial contribution to accelerating the climate-neutral transformation of the housing stock and demonstrates concrete ways in which complex decision-making structures in condominium owners' associations can be shaped in a future-oriented manner.

Project management

wohnbund:consult eG Büro für Stadt.Raum.Entwicklung

Project or cooperation partners

• ÖVI Österreichischer Verband der Immobilienwirtschaft
• Schöberl & Pöll GmbH
• RENOWAVE.AT e.G.

wohnbund:consult eG
Margarete Huber
Lenaugasse 19
A-1080 Wien
Tel.: +43 (1) 522 01 19
E-mail: margarete.huber@wohnbund.at
Web: www.wohnbund.at