EIB lending €22m for energy efficient family housing in Bucharest

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending €22.47 million to finance an energy efficient family housing in Bucharest.

The investment will go towards the second phase of the refurbishment programme for multi-family housing in the municipality of Sector 4 in Romanian capital.

The project is expected to result in savings of around 50 per cent in the heating energy consumption of the buildings concerned.

In total 140 buildings comprising 9,500 apartments will be refurbished in this second phase.

It is the first portion of a total of €42 million that has been approved by the EIB, the the European Union's bank.

This investment will be applied between 2014 and 2016 and will target annual energy savings of around 74 GWh.

EIB will finance up to 75 per cent of the project and will assist the Romanian Government in implementing both the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan and the EU Resource Efficiency Initiative.

The EIB loan follows the first phase of the energy efficiency programme for residential buildings undertaken by the Municipality of Sector 4 of Bucharest and financed by the EIB in 2012.

The estimated cost of the project is €60 million and the EIB’s contribution has been raised to 75 per cent of the project's cost, in line with guidelines for investments aimed at reducing energy consumption and mitigating climate change.

The project represents a continuation of the EIB's successful cooperation with various sectors in Bucharest.

Including the current loan, the EIB has provided a total of €327 million to finance the energy efficiency refurbishment of multi-apartment buildings in Bucharest's Sectors 1, 2, 4 and 6.