Economic and financial issues of creating an age-friendly built environment (PDF)

This e-book of JFMPC comprises papers dealing with the subject of economic and financial issues of creating an age-friendly built environment.Much of the developed world is facing an unprecedented demographic shift as in many countries the older generation becomes the majority part of the population. Surprisingly, however, the construction sector and the housing system seem to have been slow to adapt to the changing needs of the ageing population. The built environment matters in defining the conditions for people to live healthy lives and older people require high quality built environments that suit their needs across the whole life course - a building stock and infrastructure that supports independent living and enhances quality of life for the ageing population.At present the housing stock of the UK and other European countries is not ready to support independent living over the life course. With low current renovation and replacement rates, an update requires well-targeted actions and investment strategies but the added value of age-friendliness in renovation or new building projects is not always obvious to public or private homeowners and clear guidelines for the execution and financing of such projects scarcely exist.The important financial and economic issues for the construction sector and other stakeholders involved in housing provision include: Home adaption and renovation in a cost efficient way and its effect on the value-chain in the construction sector; the implementation of consistent design standards for age-friendly houses that consider the longer term social benefits of age-friendly, and financing schemes for older home owners to invest in age-friendly homes. There have been a plethora of reports in recent years in the UK from various government departments and independent organizations on housing the ageing population.The seriousness with which such concerns are considered at a European level is shown by the fact that the European Reference framework for Age-friendly Housing is currently being developed with an ongoing and sustainable dialogue about a Europe wide approach to age-friendly homes in the future and the European Silver Economy Strategy has a focus on smart investment strategies to stimulate investments in age friendly home renovation and policies to bring down costs. Also, the European Construction Technology Platform's decision to set up a focus area on Active Ageing and Design is recognition of the large contribution that the construction sector can make to the Silver Economy.The selection of papers for this e-book reflects the universal nature of the financial and economic issues, with papers concerned with the UK, other European countries (the Netherlands and Latvia), Malaysia and Australia.