CESCO XL, a new circular living concept

Van Roey Group focuses on circularity in residential real estate

The construction sector consumes more than 50% of the materials mined worldwide and is responsible for 35% of the total amount of waste in Flanders. Knowing that residential real estate with its 3 million units occupies almost half of the Flemish built-up area, it is clear that housing will play an important role in the transition to a resilient building economy. But the renewal of the building stock is slow (1.5% per year on average) and the traditional rental and ownership models do not offer incentives to adopt circular solutions.

Group Van Roey wants to determine experimentally whether a Circular Economy Service Coalition (CESCo) can be a lever to accelerate the introduction of circular principles in residential real estate. Moreover, it wants to test whether circular business models will benefit of the affordability of (re)construction and building management by (partially) transferring the ownership of the residential components to a CESCo and offering 'living' (including the building components) as a service.

Within CESCo XL, Group Van Roey wants to work on quality homes that are developed according to circular principles in terms of design, construction, financing, maintenance and operation. In this way they hope to be able to offer residents a long-term 'residential career' with affordable housing costs and a flexible housing typology for every living situation.

To achieve this, Groep Van Roey will undertake these actions:
- Strengthen the Total-Cost-of-Ownership thinking by selecting change-oriented circular building solutions based on life cycle cost instead of initial cost;
- Create end-user support by focusing on affordability (based on Total-Cost-of-Ownership) and adaptability;
- Work out an alternative, legal form of collaboration between the various stakeholders (residents, designers, implementers, investors and building managers) with attention to everyone's risk management.