Catella | Houses

Five housing cooperatives owned by Catella property funds moved from district heating to geothermal heating with the help of LeaseGreen. In addition, two properties were fitted with solar energy systems and two had their lighting modernized. According to LeaseGreen’s calculations, the modernization of the technology reduces the heating costs of the five properties by 69 percent and CO₂ emissions by 63 percent.

”Energy costs have risen significantly during the 2000s,” Catella Asset Management’s Financial Director, Iiro Nurkkala says.

Another important motive is sustainability. According to Nurkkala, it is no longer a question of high-flying speeches but the hard math of property investment value creation:

”Some investors are ready to pay a higher price, that is, reduce their profit demands in order to acquire a low-emission or carbon-neutral property portfolio. Lower emissions are already reflected in both property prices and their liquidity. There are numerous investors in Catella’s property funds that do not invest at all in funds whose sustainability affairs are not in order or closely monitored.”

The five housing cooperatives managed by Catella comprise 308 apartments and a gross surface area of 26 000 m². The properties are located in Helsinki, Espoo, Kerava, and Tampere. They consist of four relatively new apartment buildings and one terraced house. All the properties were completed in 2011. In addition to geothermal heating, the rental properties in the housing cooperative located in Helsinki’s Lauttasaari were fitted with apartment-specific cooling that is produced with the same heat pumps and from the same heat well as the heating.

The combined CO₂ emissions of the five Catella properties were reduced by almost 300 tonnes each year. The carbon footprint was reduced by the same amount as 1500 Helsinki–Berlin return flights.