Building renovation cannot start and stop with each new funding programme. What is needed to turn it into a sustainable process – with predictable rules, accessible services and quality measured by real results?

On 29 September in Sofia, Renovate Day will focus on what happens between policy ambitions and the actual renovation of a building. Ambitious plans alone do not create a market, prepare projects or guarantee high-quality delivery.

Over the coming years, Bulgaria will need to significantly accelerate the renovation of its building stock. This will require more than increased investment. It calls for a change in the way the entire system works – from planning and assessing achieved energy savings to project preparation, services for building owners and quality control of the final result.

This leads to one of the most difficult questions: how do we build a sustainable market when demand still largely follows the cycle of public funding programmes? When funding becomes available, interest rises sharply; in the periods between calls and schemes, activity often slows down. This creates difficulties not only for building owners, but also for businesses and professionals that need to build and maintain capacity over the long term. This dependence will be one of the key issues addressed during the event.

Another part of the challenge is how a building owner gets from the decision “I want to renovate my building” to a project that is actually delivered. Technical assessments, design, financing, contractor selection and quality control all require expertise and coordination that cannot realistically be left entirely to individual owners. Building Renovation Day will therefore also explore the role of one-stop shops and how these services can operate sustainably beyond individual grant schemes.

But more renovated buildings do not automatically mean better-renovated buildings. Alongside the scale of renovation, quality is becoming increasingly important: whether what is specified in the design is implemented correctly, whether professionals have the necessary skills, and whether the energy savings promised at the outset are actually achieved once construction is complete.

This is why this year’s Renovate Day will not treat policy, services and quality as separate issues. They are all part of the same question: how do we move from renovation driven by individual funding campaigns to a system that can work continuously?

Sofia, 29 September 2026, Grand Hotel Sofia, Triaditsa Hall, 13:30-17:30 

See the programme here 

Link for registration: https://forms.gle/pidBqhngNTL2Z1836