Financial company Achmea to buy rental homes in order to make them more sustainable

Achmea has claimed that it intends to be the first financial service provider to buy older rental homes with the goal of making them more sustainable. The company behind Centraal Beheer, Interpolis, and Zilveren Kruis will initially invest 50 million euros in a new fund, which will be managed by their subsidiary Achmea Real Estate. This money will be used to buy older, badly isolated rental buildings, and make them more sustainable.

Achmea is also inviting other institutional investors, like pension funds, to participate in this fund, which could grow to around 1 billion euros in 2030. Achmea estimated that there around almost a million rental homes with an energy label of D or worse. These need to be made more sustainable in the next few years to meet the Paris Climate Agreement goals.

“We all have a tough task when it comes to making existing homes more sustainable in the Netherlands,” said Achmea board member Daphne de Kluis. "We need to get started on this quickly, and this requires significant investments. With our investment, we are taking the first step."

Achmea wants to insulate the roofs, facades, floors, and windows of the homes. Gas-fired installations will also be replaced by an electric heat pump, or a connection to a heating network will be made. These measures should lead to significantly lower CO2 emissions per home and a lower energy bill for the tenants. The total housing costs, rent plus energy, will remain the same or decrease slightly even though the rents will be increased to cover the sustainability costs.