The licentiate thesis consists of three papers with the particular topic in public housing. They discuss how the public housing companies manage the transition to higher economic demands meeting increased customer and market requirements. These studies focus specifically on how the public housing company deal with market challenges associated with the decision to demolish, maintain and/or new construction. Market-oriented perspective can be a tool for the public housing companies to achieve better customer value and enhance economic development. Although the market orientation concept has contributed to valuable improvements in research, the thesis assumes that it is necessary to distinguish between that the public housing companies operate market-oriented to meet customer requirements and their focus on innovation. Paper I develops market/innovation types and then investigates how public housing companies adapt to these types. It was found that economic conditions in the municipality have a major impact on the housing companies, causing them to act innovatively and create superior customer value by innovations. The study confirms that the implementation of market and innovation orientation contributes to competitive advantages in growing markets, while weak economic conditions impair implementation in declining markets. Paper II addresses how public housing companies in declining markets act based on the concept of market intelligence. This study suggested and tested whether there is a positive link between collecting customer information, disseminating it in the organization, and responding to customer needs, and whether this link has an impact on strategic performance. The result shows that weak links exist in the process; the efficiency of intelligence distribution in public housing companies is affected mainly by their responsiveness to customer needs. Paper III also addresses the public housing companies’ market strategies in declining markets. This study, based on a market-strategic perspective, compares how public housing companies act in relation to customer wants compared to the private housing market. The result shows that public housing companies are more engaged in carrying out new construction, renovation, and reconstruction, as well as taking more social responsibility compared to the private sector. In particular, their concern for the customers’ social needs is evident. / <p>QC 20160215</p>

<p><strong><em>Introduction</em></strong></p><p>Strategic property management aims at balancing the question of how the needed space is to be secured, maintained, increased or disposed of in a cost effective manner under a mixture of decisions and actions. In recent years, the interest in building maintenance has increased as more and more of the housing stock built after the Second World War is in need of major renovation.  For example, approximately 1 million dwellings were constructed in Sweden in the period 1960-1970. Currently there is growing concern about the expected huge cost of maintaining this aging housing stock especially in the portfolio under municipal ownership. Private housing companies have been shown to report lower maintenance costs than those in the public sector but which are the factors that can explain the apparent differences? During the last decade there has also been a growing trend of governments diversifying themselves of their properties and/or outsourcing the property management. A question of interest is whether it is advantageous to do so and if the maintenance management differs substantially between the government sector and the industrial sector which is seen as business oriented and with a production centred maintenance strategy. In a number of industries there has been a paradigm shift in maintenance whereby the focus is no longer only on availability but reliability and cost effectiveness. New maintenance strategies and policies such as reliability centred maintenance have seen the light of day though without winning ground within property management. Shouldn’t building maintenance be handled in the same way?</p><p>This licentiate thesis focuses on the strategic management of housing properties under public and private ownership as well as the management of special purpose properties in the government and industrial sectors in relation to the ongoing discussion about neglected maintenance. The purpose is to contribute to the process of cost efficient and effective maintenance both in the housing sector and in the management of special purpose properties through underscoring the factors that lead to differences in the maintenance levels in the different categories.</p><p><strong><em>Method</em></strong></p><p>The questions above are analysed through a theoretical part that discusses the concept of maintenance and strategies in building maintenance in relation to other industries. The thesis also contains an empirical part that is based on a survey in the form of a questionnaire on housing maintenance and an econometric analysis of the maintenance costs contained in the financial reports of the municipal and private housing companies as well as a questionnaire on among others how state and county governments as well as industrial companies have secured the availability and management of their special purpose properties.</p><p>The thesis consists of four papers the first two of which are co-authored with Hans Lind. It starts by demarcating the concept of maintenance in the context of standard investment theory followed in paper 2 by a discussion of the term “maintenance strategy” and some stylized facts concerning building maintenance in Sweden. Maintenance strategies and approaches used in some other industries are presented as a background to an analysis of why building maintenance is different. The various factors that affect the maintenance costs reported within the housing sector are surveyed and analysed in paper 3 before the results from a survey on management of special purpose properties in the state and county governments as well industry sector are presented in paper 4. A questionnaire was used to get a broader material about aspects that were difficult to observe directly, including views about underlying factors.</p><p><strong><em>Results</em></strong></p><p>From the perspective of investment theory everything that is usually classified as maintenance is also an investment. The concept of maintenance can in a number of situations be taken to be unnecessary. A review of strategies from other industries reveals a focus on systematic data collection and cost analysis before action is taken and a move away from time scheduled maintenance to acting on the condition of the object. However building maintenance contains a substantial degree of corrective maintenance with a high degree of opportunistic maintenance and detailed maintenance planning is not ideal due to constantly changing needs and demands. An important result is from the surveys and econometric analysis which indicate that the ownership category has a significant effect of approx. 35 per cent on the maintenance costs reported by the housing companies. Furthermore a major factor affecting the cost level in the housing companies is the influence of external factors such as pressure from the media and politicians. The degree of special property ownership in the surveyed companies is high and the probability of the leasing market increasing in the coming five years is very low. According to the respondents there is very little neglected maintenance in the industry in contrast to the government sector especially in the counties. Furthermore, the maintenance plans in the public sector were shorter than those in the private sector.</p><p><strong><em>Discussion</em></strong></p><p>The outstanding result from the surveys is that classification of activities as maintenance or investments in both housing and special purpose properties differs in that the public sector companies lean more towards maintenance than investment in their accounting and have a higher degree of adherence to laid maintenance plans. The distinct difference in the pay-back duration used by the government sector as compared to that in the industry sector in effect lowers the effectiveness of the government sector as the lower required rate of return allows the government sector to have more activities that appear to be profitable.  Maybe the problem to worry about should not be that of neglected maintenance in this sector but that of unprofitable maintenance that should not be carried out. This might also just explain why more activities are classified and dealt with as investments by the industry and not by the county or state companies or the municipal housing companies.</p><p><strong><em>Conclusion</em></strong></p><p>There are strong arguments for saying that building maintenance rationally differs from the kind of maintenance and maintenance planning that could be observed in some of the other industries and the concept of maintenance is much more suitable in a world where there are smaller changes and where it is believed to be possible to know long in advance what is rational to do. The divergence in classification of activities even within the same category and company revealed by the two surveys is problematic as it complicates comparison of activities and services provided as well as benchmarking and it should be given appropriate attention by the managers. This goes to show the great need to use the same well defined concepts in order to benchmark and develop more efficient maintenance management strategies.</p><p><strong><em>Future research</em></strong></p><p>Though each building is unique the goal should be to develop a model that is rational given the specific uncertainties that characterise a building and the institutional system in which decisions are made. The limited size of the sample and the lack of transparency and uniformity in the financial reports constrain the research efforts in this study. However research is needed towards a clearer and more transparent classification of maintenance activities with the purpose of not only reducing the gap between the reported maintenance costs of the companies but also increasing the comparability in the branch. This will help to isolate and possibly limit the external influence in the management of the companies especially in the municipal housing sector.</p>

Introduction Strategic property management aims at balancing the question of how the needed space is to be secured, maintained, increased or disposed of in a cost effective manner under a mixture of decisions and actions. In recent years, the interest in building maintenance has increased as more and more of the housing stock built after the Second World War is in need of major renovation.  For example, approximately 1 million dwellings were constructed in Sweden in the period 1960-1970. Currently there is growing concern about the expected huge cost of maintaining this aging housing stock especially in the portfolio under municipal ownership. Private housing companies have been shown to report lower maintenance costs than those in the public sector but which are the factors that can explain the apparent differences? During the last decade there has also been a growing trend of governments diversifying themselves of their properties and/or outsourcing the property management. A question of interest is whether it is advantageous to do so and if the maintenance management differs substantially between the government sector and the industrial sector which is seen as business oriented and with a production centred maintenance strategy. In a number of industries there has been a paradigm shift in maintenance whereby the focus is no longer only on availability but reliability and cost effectiveness. New maintenance strategies and policies such as reliability centred maintenance have seen the light of day though without winning ground within property management. Shouldn’t building maintenance be handled in the same way? This licentiate thesis focuses on the strategic management of housing properties under public and private ownership as well as the management of special purpose properties in the government and industrial sectors in relation to the ongoing discussion about neglected maintenance. The purpose is to contribute to the process of cost efficient and effective maintenance both in the housing sector and in the management of special purpose properties through underscoring the factors that lead to differences in the maintenance levels in the different categories. Method The questions above are analysed through a theoretical part that discusses the concept of maintenance and strategies in building maintenance in relation to other industries. The thesis also contains an empirical part that is based on a survey in the form of a questionnaire on housing maintenance and an econometric analysis of the maintenance costs contained in the financial reports of the municipal and private housing companies as well as a questionnaire on among others how state and county governments as well as industrial companies have secured the availability and management of their special purpose properties. The thesis consists of four papers the first two of which are co-authored with Hans Lind. It starts by demarcating the concept of maintenance in the context of standard investment theory followed in paper 2 by a discussion of the term “maintenance strategy” and some stylized facts concerning building maintenance in Sweden. Maintenance strategies and approaches used in some other industries are presented as a background to an analysis of why building maintenance is different. The various factors that affect the maintenance costs reported within the housing sector are surveyed and analysed in paper 3 before the results from a survey on management of special purpose properties in the state and county governments as well industry sector are presented in paper 4. A questionnaire was used to get a broader material about aspects that were difficult to observe directly, including views about underlying factors. Results From the perspective of investment theory everything that is usually classified as maintenance is also an investment. The concept of maintenance can in a number of situations be taken to be unnecessary. A review of strategies from other industries reveals a focus on systematic data collection and cost analysis before action is taken and a move away from time scheduled maintenance to acting on the condition of the object. However building maintenance contains a substantial degree of corrective maintenance with a high degree of opportunistic maintenance and detailed maintenance planning is not ideal due to constantly changing needs and demands. An important result is from the surveys and econometric analysis which indicate that the ownership category has a significant effect of approx. 35 per cent on the maintenance costs reported by the housing companies. Furthermore a major factor affecting the cost level in the housing companies is the influence of external factors such as pressure from the media and politicians. The degree of special property ownership in the surveyed companies is high and the probability of the leasing market increasing in the coming five years is very low. According to the respondents there is very little neglected maintenance in the industry in contrast to the government sector especially in the counties. Furthermore, the maintenance plans in the public sector were shorter than those in the private sector. Discussion The outstanding result from the surveys is that classification of activities as maintenance or investments in both housing and special purpose properties differs in that the public sector companies lean more towards maintenance than investment in their accounting and have a higher degree of adherence to laid maintenance plans. The distinct difference in the pay-back duration used by the government sector as compared to that in the industry sector in effect lowers the effectiveness of the government sector as the lower required rate of return allows the government sector to have more activities that appear to be profitable.  Maybe the problem to worry about should not be that of neglected maintenance in this sector but that of unprofitable maintenance that should not be carried out. This might also just explain why more activities are classified and dealt with as investments by the industry and not by the county or state companies or the municipal housing companies. Conclusion There are strong arguments for saying that building maintenance rationally differs from the kind of maintenance and maintenance planning that could be observed in some of the other industries and the concept of maintenance is much more suitable in a world where there are smaller changes and where it is believed to be possible to know long in advance what is rational to do. The divergence in classification of activities even within the same category and company revealed by the two surveys is problematic as it complicates comparison of activities and services provided as well as benchmarking and it should be given appropriate attention by the managers. This goes to show the great need to use the same well defined concepts in order to benchmark and develop more efficient maintenance management strategies. Future research Though each building is unique the goal should be to develop a model that is rational given the specific uncertainties that characterise a building and the institutional system in which decisions are made. The limited size of the sample and the lack of transparency and uniformity in the financial reports constrain the research efforts in this study. However research is needed towards a clearer and more transparent classification of maintenance activities with the purpose of not only reducing the gap between the reported maintenance costs of the companies but also increasing the comparability in the branch. This will help to isolate and possibly limit the external influence in the management of the companies especially in the municipal housing sector.

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Svenska branschen för bostadsbolag bidrar till en stor del av landets miljöpåverkan. Tillsammans står bostadsbolagen för 10 till 40 % av Sveriges förbrukning av energi och farliga kemikalier, avfallsgenerering och utsläpp. Trots denna påverkan råder det stor variation i vilken omfattning som svenska allmännyttiga kommunala bostadsbolag miljöredovisar. Ur tidigare forskning identifierades variabler som antas påverka miljöredovisningens omfattning vilket formade studiens syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att utreda i vilken omfattning som allmännyttiga kommunala bostadsaktiebolag i Sverige miljöredovisar och analysera hur mängden lagenliga miljöupplysningar påverkas av bolagsstorlek, lönsamhet, skuldsättningsgrad, miljöledningssystemets kvalitet och kommunalpolitik.   Denna dokumentstudie genomför en innehållsanalys för att samla in numerisk data främst från årsredovisningar från 134 allmännyttiga kommunala bostadsaktiebolag. För att analysera insamlad data sammanställdes deskriptiv statistik och en multipel linjär regressionsanalys utfördes.   Studien finner att det råder stor spridning i vilken omfattning som allmännyttiga kommunala bostadsaktiebolag miljöredovisar. Dessutom urskiljer studien att miljöredovisningen är av liten omfattning i större delen av bolagen. Slutsatserna är i linje med tidigare forskning som studerat miljöredovisning i bostadsbolag. Regressionsanalysen visar att skuldsättningsgrad och kommunalpolitik har en signifikant positiv inverkan på miljöredovisningens omfattning.   Då denna studie enbart granskar miljöredovisning för ett specifikt räkenskapsår kan en intressant aspekt för vidare forskning vara att undersöka en längre tidsperiod. Det hade även varit av intresse att studera andra former av bostadsbolag, förslagsvis privatägda.   Det finns få studier som fokuserar på allmännyttiga kommunala bostadsbolag och miljöredovisning. Till skillnad från tidigare studier bedöms miljöredovisningens omfattning genom att beräkna antal ord relaterat till bolagets interaktion med miljön. Med hjälp av denna studie kan bostadsbolag se om förbättringar är nödvändiga. / The Swedish real estate sector contributes to a large part of the country’s environmental impact. Collectively, real estate companies account for 10 to 40 % of Sweden's energy consumption and hazardous chemicals, waste generation and emissions. Despite this impact, there is a large spread in the extent to which Swedish public municipal housing companies conduct environmental reporting. From previous research, variables were identified that are assumed to affect the extent of environmental reporting, which formed the purpose of the study: The purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent municipal housing company in Sweden conduct environmental reporting and analyze how the amount of legal environmental disclosures is affected by company size, profitability, leverage, quality of the environmental management system and local government politics.   This document analysis conducts a content analysis to collect numerical data mostly from annual reports of 134 public municipal housing companies. To analyze the collected data, descriptive statistics were compiled and a multiple linear regression analysis was performed.   The study finds that there is a large spread in the extent to which public municipal housing companies conducts environmental reporting. In addition, the study distinguishes that the environmental reporting is small in scaleamong many of the companies. The findings are consistent with previous research that also studied environmental reporting in real estate companies. The regression analysis shows that leverage andlocal government politics have a significant positive impact on the extent of environmental disclosures.   Since this study only examines environmental reporting for a particular fiscal year, an interesting aspect for future research can be to examine a longer period of time. It had also been of interest to study other types ofhousing companies, such as privately owned.   There are few studies that focus on public municipal housing companies and environmental reporting. Unlike previous studies, the extent of environmental reporting is assessed by counting number of words related to the company's interaction with the environment. With the help of this study, real estate companies can see whether improvements are required.

Syfte: Syftet med vår studie är att utreda och analysera hur två kommunala bostadsföretag arbetar med kundorientering idag jämfört med för tio år sedan. Vårt mål är att utifrån en uppföljande studie redogöra för hur kundorienteringstankarna har utvecklats under den senaste tioårsperioden. Arbetar de kommunala bostadsföretagen mer kundorienterat idag jämfört med för tio år sedan? Vi vill även öka kunskapen kring kundorientering och belysa vilka fördelar som finns att vinna hos de kommunala bostadsföretag som väljer att arbeta kundorienterat.   Metod: För att genomföra studien har vi samlat information från litteratur och från två intervjuer. Intervjuerna har utförts personligt på respektive respondents kontor. Intervjuerna spelades in på band. Därefter har materialet analyserats och bearbetats.     Slutsats: Vi anser att de två kommunala bostadsföretag vi granskat har utvecklat sin kundorientering mycket, särskilt de fem senaste åren. De kan därmed ses som kundorienterade i en högre utsträckning idag jämfört med för tio år sedan. Bostadsföretagen utgår mer från kundernas behov och önskemål när olika beslut tas och använder sig dessutom av omfattande kundundersökningar.   Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Förslagsvis kan man utföra fördjupande studier inom området, t.ex. mer ingående analysera hur en ökad kommersialisering av kommunala bostadsföretag påverkar deras kundorientering. Vi föreslår även att man utför jämförelser med ett större urval av kommunala bostadsföretag. Det vore också av stort intresse att utföra studier som jämför skillnader mellan kommunala bostadsföretags kundorientering gentemot ett kommersiellt fastighetsföretag.   Uppsatsens bidrag: Vi tror att den här studien kan vara till nytta för andra studenter som läser till fastighetsekonomer, och för andra kommunala bostadsföretag för att se hur de kommunala bostadsföretag vi undersökt arbetar med kundorientering. Vi tror dessutom att andra företag med liknande eller andra produkter och tjänster som är relaterade till fastighetsbranschen kan använda sig av vår studie för att utveckla sin kundorientering. / Purpose: The purpose with our study is to analyze and conduct an inquiry of how two municipal housing companies work with customer focus today compared to ten years ago. We also want to pay attention to how the thoughts of costumer alignment have been developed during the last ten years with a follow up study. Do the municipal housing companies work more with customer alignment today than a decade ago? We also want to increase knowledge about customer alignment and illustrate the benefits that could be done by municipal housing companies who choose to work with customer alignment. Method: In order to implement this study we have gathered data from literature and from two interviews. The interview has been personally performed at each respondents´ offices. The interviews were also recorded on tape. The material we gathered was analyzed and processed to this thesis. Conclusions: We consider that the municipal housing companies in Sweden have developed their customer alignment very much, especially during the last five years. They are thereby customer alignmented in a higher extent today compared to ten years ago. The companies are using a lot of extensive customer surveys and work on the supposition from costumers when making various decisions.   Suggestions for future research: We consider that it could be of interest to carry out continued studies within the area. As a suggestion, one can carry out deepening studies within the area but also how an increased commercialization of the municipal housing companies influences their customer alignment. We also suggest that one can carry out comparisons with a bigger selection of the municipal housing companies. We also consider that it could be of interest to carry out studies that compare differences between the municipal housing companies´ customer alignment compared with a commercial real estate company.   Contribution of the thesis: We think that this study can be useful for other real estate economist students, also for other municipal housing companies in order to see how a non-profit real estate companies carries out their customer alignment. We also believe that other companies with similar or other products and services that are related within the real estate sector can use our study in order to develop their customer alignment.

Titel:                 Allmännyttiga bostadsbolags utmaningar med miljonprogrammet – Samhällsansvar kontra affärsmässighet Nivå:                 C-uppsats i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare:        Joakim Fornaeus och Rickard Mattsson Handledare:     Lars Steiner Datum:             2012-Maj   Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva och analysera hur allmännyttiga kommunala bostadsbolag hanterar problemen med miljonprogrammet på ett affärsmässigt och samtidigt socialt ansvarsfullt sätt. Metod: Denna studie har bedrivits med en kvalitativ vetenskaplig metod. Vi har genomfört totalt fyra intervjuer varav två per telefon, med personer från tre olika företag samt en person från hyresgästföreningen. Resultat &amp; slutsats: Det måste helt enkelt till en rad regelförändringar som ger bättre ekonomiska förutsättningar för allmännyttiga bostadsbolag om man från statens sida även i fortsättningen vill se allmännyttiga bostadsbolag som framträdande aktörer på bostadsmarknaden. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Ett förslag till vidare forskning är att man skulle räkna på vilka förslag till lösningar som är mest realistiska. Vidare vilka som är mest gynnsamma för dels samhället men också för bostadsbolaget som sådant. Det skulle också vara intressant att se vad som händer om det nu inte skulle bli några regelförändringar. Hur länge klarar de allmännyttiga bostadsbolagen en sådan situation? Uppsatsens bidrag: Denna studie synliggör att detta är ett problem samt vad det innebär. Den bistår med en jämförelse mellan samhällsansvar och affärsmässighet som visar att det finns vissa motsättningar i detta. Nyckelord: Samhällsansvar, allmännyttiga bostadsbolag, affärsmässighet, miljonprogrammet / Title:                 Public housing companies challenges with “Miljonprogrammet” – Corporate responsibility versus a businesslike approach Level:                Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Author:             Joakim Fornaeus and Rickard Mattsson Supervisor:       Lars Steiner Date:                 2012-May   Aim: The aim with this paper is to describe and analyze how public municipal housing companies handle the problems with the Swedish phenomena “Miljonprogrammet” in a businesslike way, while they take a social responsibility.   Method: This study has been done in a qualitative scientific method. We have done four interviews, of which two have been done by telephone with three persons from three different companies and one person from Hyresgästföreningen.            Result &amp; Conclusions:  Simply, there must be some changing of the laws to make better economical conditions for public municipal housing companies if the government wants the companies to continue to be prominent players on the housing market. Suggestions for future research: One of our suggestions for further research is to calculate which suggestion that is most realistic. Further on what will be most beneficial for society but also for the housing companies itself. It would also be interesting to see what would happen if there would no changes of the law. How long would the housing companies manage a situation like that?   Contribution of the thesis: This study reveals that this is a problem and what it means. It also contributes with a comparison between social responsibility and a businesslike approach that shows that there are some contradictions between these two aspects.   Key words: Social responsibility, Public municipal housing companies, Businesslike approach, “miljonprogrammet”

Finansvärlden har drabbas av flertalet olika ekonomiska kriser de senaste åren och sedan dess råder det osäkerhet i världsekonomin. Osäkerheten gör att de traditionella investeringsbedömningsmetoder som grundar sig i diskonterade kassaflöden blivit allt mer kritiserade och anses som otillräckliga för att göra ett bra investeringsbeslut. Med hjälp av reala optioner kan osäkerheten minska och på längre sikt göra mer gynnsamma investeringar.  Allmännyttiga kommunala bostadsaktiebolag har den unika situationen att de har ramar och regler som gör att de måste göra långsiktiga investeringar och inte kan byta sitt geografiska läge, till skillnad från privata bostadsbolag. I denna unika situation måste det allmännyttiga kommunala bostadsaktiebolaget säkerställa att bolaget har möjligheten och flexibiliteten att göra investeringar som är lönsamma för bolaget. Därför kom vi fram till problemformuleringen: Hur kan reala optioner påverka investeringsbeslut i allmännyttiga kommunala bostadsbolag? Syftet med studien var att beskriva och analysera hur reala optioner kan påverka ett investeringsbeslut i allmännyttiga kommunala bostadsaktiebolag och förklara hur allmännyttiga kommunala bostadsaktiebolag använder sig av reala optioner.  Metoden för studien är en kvalitativ metod där vi intervjuade tre olika allmännyttiga kommunala bostadsaktiebolag i Halland och Nordvästra Skåne. Resultatet av studien blev att reala optioner påverkar investeringsbeslut i allmännyttiga kommunala bostadsaktiebolag. Samhällseffekter som investeringen tillför kan göra att kommunen på lång sikt får en befolkningstillväxt och ekonomisk tillväxt som väger upp förlusten i den enskilda investeringen. Flexibiliteten och möjligheten finns i investeringen som den bidrar med till samhället och kan därmed påverka ett investeringsbeslut på så sätt att även om kalkylen inte visar på ett positivt nettonuvärde genomförs den ändå.

Energy efficiency within the housing sector is progressing. In Vallastaden which is a newly developed city district in Linköping, Sweden, constructors together with the municipality have made attempts to create a sustainable built environment. One of the goals was to establish energy efficient residential buildings in Vallastaden. The overall aim of the study was to investigate the development of two energy plus buildings in Vallastaden and explore the potentials for the energy concept in these buildings to reduce the energy use. The perceptions of the occupants were included in the study since their views and practices play an important part for the buildings’ energy performance. Qualitative interviews were conducted with informants from two housing companies and three households. The findings show that the motives for the housing companies were try out new things and progress within the housing sector. The housing companies were however uncertain if their buildings would become energy efficient in practice since it depended on how the occupants would interact with the technology and the energy concept. There is a risk that the energy concept and the technology may not reach its full potential in reducing energy since the occupants either had no reflection about their role in the energy concept or were uncertain about the technology. The communication between the housing companies and the occupants needs to be strengthened for occupants to realize their influence on the energy use in these buildings.

Energy efficiency is an important question to society as well as to individuals and firms. Improving energy efficiency in the building sector is considered an important means to climate mitigation. For real estate owners energy is also a central expenditure item and reducing energy consumption may directly reduce operation costs while at the same time serve as insurance against future energy price increases. Since new buildings only add a few percent annually to the building stock, the potential to reduce total energy consumption primarily lies within the existing building stock. The building stock is ageing and the post-war part of the stock that is in need of renovation is growing. This has been suggested as a window of opportunity to improve energy efficiency, but so far the results have been few. Several factors have been put forward to explain the so called energy efficiency gap – the difference between actual and optimal energy efficiency – one of which is split incentives. What adds to complexity in this case is that distinct differences have been observed in the level of ambition between the real estate companies that have renovated so far. Some companies have undertaken extensive renovation and energy efficiency measures, whereas other companies have done little more than urgent maintenance measures. It seems that real estate owners in general don´t have strong economic incentives to improve energy efficiency in connection to renovation – but what can then explain the differences between strategies? This licentiate thesis examines the incentives among real estate owners to improve energy efficiency, particularly in post-war, multi-family buildings in need of renovation. The purpose is to add knowledge about decisions concerning measures that improve energy efficiency - in terms of incentives, barriers and different motives for real estate owners’ strategies and actions. Results show that real estate owners lack strong economic incentives to invest in energy efficiency in multi-family buildings and the level of investment is dependent on the different motivations, grouped in three levels of ambition, that real estate companies have. One important conclusion is that the heterogeneity between companies that was exposed in the interviews and survey implies that they will not respond similarly to policy stimuli. The heterogeneity should thus be considered when designing policy measures so that public and company resources can be allocated as efficiently as possible, as there are many challenges facing owners of post-war residential buildings. Another conclusion is that from an economic point of view it is important to take the interaction between different measures into account, e.g. between physical measures and measures focusing on changing household behavior. / QC 20110630