Passivhaus homes and multi-units?

[Roy N.]

Hello builders out in BP land.

Those who have read many of my posts here on BP will note that sustainability and energy efficiency are core to our real estate business plan.  We began by purchasing older (as in Second Empire, Victorian, Edwardian, with a couple of post WWII houses) buildings and renovating them to be healthy energy efficient homes for our tenants.

Our roadmap has always had the longer term objective of building new multi-unit buildings (townhouses and/or apartment complexes) to Passivhaus standards.  There have been thousands of Passivhaus multi-unit buildings erected in Europe and a {scant} few in North America (none in the Maritimes), so the idea and the building techniques have been proved. 

The inner geeks in my partner and myself are thrilled with the idea of a townhouse whose total utility consumption is less than $150 - 250 per year ... or a 25-unit apartment building with energy costs in the range of $5K (or less).  I also think there is enough awareness these days to have a small, but growing, clientele for such accommodations.

I wanted to reach out to see if there are any developers here on Bigger Pockets who are already building Passivhaus SFRs or MFRs and to learn about the construction approaches you are taking (built in-place versus modular or panel (SIPs)); the build premium to arrive a the Passivhaus standard (in parts of Europe, the premium appears to be 10-15% on MFH properties ... with an 80+% reduction in energy/resource operating costs, the payback is very quick); and whether you are finding buyers or renters willing to pay a premium for the efficiency.