OREANDA-NEWS. On 26 May 2008 was announced, that the conference "Project of Renovation of Buildings and Improvement of Energy Efficiency" demonstrated that house managers and residents are highly interested in this particular area. The conference was organised by AS Maju serviss KSA, the largest private building maintenance company in Riga, and Hansabanka. For the time being, residents of already 17 houses managed by KSA have shown their interest in renovation of their buildings and KSA in co-operation with Hansabanka is ready to offer renovation of the buildings as a part of house maintenance services. KSA has expressed its readiness to provide maintenance services also to other residential buildings, the residents of which are interested in renovation and improvement of energy efficiency.

Ms. Baiba Plavina, Chairperson of the Board of AS Maju serviss KSA: "The Cabinet Regulation "Amount of Co-financing from the State Budget and Procedure of Allocation for Energy Efficiency Measures in Residential Buildings” is adopted, however, it seems that many people are ready to act themselves, and we are happy about it! The aforesaid Regulation stipulates that only 20 % of total renovation project costs may be eligible for the state support, moreover, no one can guarantee that it will be possible to receive this support money already next year. By taking into account the fact that charges for public utility services are skyrocketing, people may save their money up to 50 % in the next heating season by acting already now. In everyday business KSA receives complaints from the residents about their aged housing. It is not a secret that majority of the residential buildings in Latvia are old and their heat insulation is very low without mentioning other problems related to these buildings. Therefore we invite all residents of residential buildings to decide already now whether to continue to pay overpriced bills for utility services or to enjoy a tidy environment and living in a beautiful and warm housing with high level of comfort and to join those people who have already commenced renovation of their housing."

Ms. Gunta Spengele, Head of Corporate Product Development Department of Hansabanka, says: "The goal of Hansabanka is to promote project development of renovation both in Riga and across Latvia. Although we do not have official statistical data on renovated residential buildings in Latvia, if we rely on the publicly available information, there are very few renovated residential buildings in Latvia, their number may be in the range of 3–5 % of all the residential houses. Renovation of buildings as a tool how to reduce the heating costs becomes increasingly topical. Charges for heating continue to grow and renovation helps to reduce the costs in the long-term".

Hansabanka offers a loan for renovation of residential buildings and improvement of energy efficiency to any house manager: both to cooperatives of flat owners and associations of flat owners, as well as to building maintenance companies. The financing may be even up to 100 % of the project's costs, moreover, flat owners do not have to mortgage their flats or give a guarantee; they only have to pay in due time for the house maintenance services they have received.

Both representatives of residential buildings managed by AS Maju Serviss KSA and representatives of flat cooperatives and associations who are interested in opportunities how to renovate their buildings and improve their energy efficiency were invited to the conference "Project of Renovation of Buildings and Improvement of Energy Efficiency". The aim of the conference was to inform residents and encourage them to think of activities which can be implemented already this summer to enable them to reduce the heating energy losses and thus heating costs, as well as to increase the value of their residential buildings.