BHA - The Bulgarian Housing Association is an independent, not-for-profit legal entity aimed at identifying and dealing with housing and urban development issues by mobilising relevant stakeholders and integrating all public and private resources. The goal of BHA is to facilitate the reform of the housing sector in Bulgaria in achieving contemporary standards of housing and living environment by enabling the provision of affordable housing for vulnerable social groups by introducing effective forms of co-operation between public and private parties. BHA is also aiming at promoting appropriate organizational patterns for the maintenance, management and renovation of the housing stock in compliance with the contemporary requirements and European standards.

The Bulgarian National POWER HOUSE Platform involves national and local policy makers, energy agencies and funds, national associations of construction companies in housing renovation and companies dealing with production and import of construction materials, national branch organizations of architects and engineers, and the National Union of Homeowners’ Associations. The members of the Bulgarian National Platform are involved at different levels and in different ways in accordance with their role in increasing the importance of energy issues in the housing sector. The Bulgarian National Platform organizes various dissemination campaigns and provides easy access to information on state-of-the-art developments in the field of energy efficiency and the use of renewables in the residential sector from throughout the EU. The Platform also works to support measures outlined under the National Housing Renovation Program which aims at reducing current heating requirements by 30-40% and contributes to implementation strategy of the Operational Programme Regional Development 2007-2013 in its part dedicated to housing and urban development.

“For the Bulgarian POWER HOUSE Platform, the priority is to find ways to create legally and financially feasible scheme and models for the renovation of condominium buildings in private ownership which account for 97% of the building stock. Homeowners associations involved in the Bulgarian Platform report that information delivered to them on energy efficiency and renewable energy is commercially driven and lacking in detailed information on cost, maintenance and savings. It is often provided by producers of individual components by different companies and therefore the integrated approach which is needed to achieve whole-building approaches is missing. The survey revealed that top priority for home owners are basic energy efficiency measure with the highest return in terms of savings with limited interest in renewables. Home owners associations in Bulgaria have expressed a need for customised training events. Also needed is information and know-how about the available financial sources and the dissemination of information on completed pilot projects.” - Mr George Georgiev, Bulgarian POWER HOUSE Platform coordinator.