Housing, Norwegian Rate | Homeowners are sitting on a huge cost bomb

In 2022, more thorough condition reports were introduced for use when selling housing.

Now the industry organization Norsk Takst has gone through the reports that have been made since then. The content gives reason to shout warning, the organization believes.

– Information from 60,000 detached house condition reports from 2022 to April this year shows that there are urgent upgrading needs worth staggering sums. If these statistics represent a cross-section of the standard of all the country’s 1.3 million detached houses, it means that it will cost around 520 billion to fix the deficiencies, says Daniel Ø. Helgesen, CEO of Norsk Takst.

The situation is worst in exposed areas such as the far north of Finnmark, the farthest Lofoten and the far west of Western Norway and Møre og Romsdal, they write in a note.

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Moisture is a bigger problem than previously thought

Not surprisingly, wet rooms are the biggest culprit.

– Most serious errors and deficiencies are uncovered in wet rooms. In addition, these types of defects are the most expensive to remedy, says Helgesen.

– Moisture problems are also detected, especially in rooms that are below ground level. Many such deviations are revealed when holes are taken, and the statistical analysis of the reports gives a much clearer picture of moisture problems than we have had in the past.

Drainage and roofs are another recurring theme. According to the condition reports, 4 percent of the homes that had condition level 3 – serious or critical defects – were on the roof. The average cost of doing something about it is NOK 316,000 per home.

They have also looked at reports from apartments, but their conclusion is that the problems are more widespread in detached houses, semi-detached houses and terraced houses.

Do it quickly and cheaply, not late and expensively

Many of the challenges with maintenance backlogs are that it becomes much more expensive if the problems are not dealt with quickly.

Norsk Takst refers to a survey by the insurance company Fremtind which last year showed that 1 in 5 thought they could not afford maintenance.

– The backlog figures should act as a wake-up call, says the tariff top.

He has a clear recommendation that you should create a maintenance plan where you regularly maintain important elements, which will lead to lower costs over time:

– It is a cheap “insurance” against sudden catastrophic failures that can cost much more than many can afford.

EU requirements make the cost bomb even bigger

The problems that have been uncovered come on top of the EU’s new requirements for energy efficiency in homes.

All homes must rise to energy label E by 2030 and D by 2033 – and even further in 2050. These are requirements that have been previously estimated by the Homeowners to be somewhere between 500,000 and 1.5 million per home.

Full disagreement about what the EU’s new shock directive means for Norwegian home owners

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– This means that you should already start to assess whether you need more insulation of, for example, windows and that you assess whether the home’s energy system is good enough, says Daniel Ø. Helgesen.

He points out that this type of upgrade should often be seen in context:

– In many cases, however, energy efficiency measures will have to be seen in connection with other renovations, and it will be profitable to do it at the same time. By, for example, changing windows, doors and establishing new drainage (with insulation of the basement wall), you will get major energy-efficient improvements without having to add in particular extra costs over and above improving what still had to be replaced.