Commercial, Energy Efficiency, Finance  -  September 11, 2017

Financing energy efficiency through mortgage loans

This report from the Institute for Market Transformation and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory examines the current landscape for building owners and lenders seeking to integrate energy efficiency and utility savings into building assessments and retrofit plans, and to utilize the data to enhance traditional loans. 

The report examines real properties that successfully utilize existing programs to help building owners account for energy efficiency during mortgage underwriting, and offers guidelines for the mortgage lending community and building owners on how to roll energy efficiency retrofits into traditional mortgages in an effective and seamless manner.

For decades, mortgage loans have been the primary means of financing residential and commercial building ownership. The lending community’s use of traditional, multi-year loans for both commercial and multifamily properties alike spread costs over a long period to lessen financial burden for buyers, but until recently, building owners who sought a more energy-efficient building needed to obtain non-traditional financing and perform energy retrofits separate from a traditional mortgage.

Read These Related Articles:

• With help from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, data center energy use levels after years of rapid growth
• Decarbonizing New York’s Inefficient Buildings
• Energy Codes Forecast 2024: Money, Politics, and a New Model Code
• With New Law, California Moves Towards Statewide Building Performance Standard
• Ten Points on the Beaver State’s New Building Performance Standard