Bulgarian Housing
Building Partnerships for Sustainable Maintenance of Condominium Buildings in Sofia
Two non-profit housing associations from the Netherlands (De Nieuwe Unie and Woondrecht) are working with the Bulgarian Housing Association on a pilot project for sustainable maintenance of condominium buildings in Sofia. Experts from De Nieuwe Unie of Rotterdam (with 27,000 dwellings) and Woondrecht from Dordrecht (10,000 dwellings) joined Bulgarian specialists in 2003 to address the urgent need for adequate management, maintenance and reconstruction of multi-apartment buildings in Sofia.
The residents from the selected pilot building formed an Owners Union [HOA]; two Dutch Housing Associations and a local municipality established a Development Unit, an entity which will implement the investment activities and secure payments collection post-project completion. Financing was secured, contractors were hired and all work on the first condominium building was successfully completed by November 2004.
The owners will be paying back the loan during the following 20 years. The goal is for the energy efficiency savings to pay back all the cost of the project. In this way the maintenance budget for the families will not increase while the energy efficiency measures will be followed by adequate monitoring.