More than a third of the housing stock in Switzerland was built in the 60s, 70s and 80s of the 20th century. The construction activity of the so-called "boom years" is characterised by the size of the projects, sometimes with more than 200 flats per development, and their locations, mainly in the agglomerations of larger cities on the Central Plateau.
After around 50 years, many of these flats, which are mainly in the portfolios of institutional owners, have already undergone a major refurbishment cycle and the urgent question arises as to what should be done with the property. It should be noted that the buildings from the 1960s in particular are characterised by significantly poor properties in terms of energy efficiency and sustainability. If energy-efficient refurbishment measures were carried out in the 80s or 90s, these are often already at the end of their technical service life. In many cases, the flat layouts also no longer meet today's requirements and the flats can only be placed on the market at very low rents. Although in some cases new replacement buildings can be considered, most of the properties must be subject to a cost-effective refurbishment strategy due to their location and the lack of rental potential at the site.
Sometimes attempts are made to counter the dilemma of the refurbishment backlog and low rent levels with a strategy of creative minimal refurbishment. Brush-up refurbishments and "refreshments" in particularly visible areas are used in an attempt to ensure the lettability of a property in the short term. In our experience, such strategies can only be successful for a limited period of time. They are never sustainable.
We believe that a far more promising strategy is to organise the mass and simultaneous occurrence of comparable refurbishment measures in large property portfolios more efficiently and cost-effectively with the help of package-based awarding of contracts.
By tendering and awarding planning and contractor services in packages, significant cost and time savings as well as economies of scale can be achieved compared to the awarding of individual projects. Additional increases in efficiency can be realised through centralised purchasing and comprehensive operation and maintenance planning.
However, such an approach requires a great deal of effort in terms of strategic planning and project organisation (project portfolio management). In our experience, this increased effort is only justified from a project portfolio size of 20 or more projects.
For each individual project, the first step is to derive the optimum scope of refurbishment from the structural condition, existing potential and overarching objectives (e.g. a cross-portfolio sustainability strategy or special requirements in terms of efficient operation and maintenance).
The next step involves clustering the project portfolio in order to put together sensible award packages. This step is a key factor for the subsequent success of the overall project. Criteria must be defined for clustering. Depending on the project portfolio, there are numerous options for this. Regional clustering can be an initial approach for Switzerland-wide portfolios. Clustering according to quality standards depending on the targeted market segment and location has also proven to be successful. Another option is to categorise project objectives according to levels of urgency. A distinction should be made between measures that are urgently required on the basis of the previous building component analysis or legal requirements and those that can be carried out as an option in the context of the refurbishment.
Depending on the time frame and project size, we assume in practice that a maximum of 5 to 10 projects per cluster should be awarded to a project team of planners and contractors. Once the award clusters have been defined, the next step is to draw up standardised tender documents. This would include standardised work contracts for planners and contractors, whereby a distinction should be made between templates for TU work contracts and for all other relevant work contracts as well as any standardised construction specifications and operating concepts.
However, the decisive success factor for the management of larger renovation project portfolios is an efficient and well-coordinated project organisation. In this respect, we have had good experience with the introduction of an overall project management organisation between the strategic decision-making bodies on the owner's side and the project managers at operational level. Together with the owner, the overall project management team defines the project objectives and the overarching project standards and monitors compliance with these throughout the entire project. The monitoring of project risks is also one of the tasks of the overall project management during the ongoing project.