Potential and perspective of improving the energy efficiency of multi-family housing buildings in the European Union and Serbia

In cities, multi-family buildings are among the main consumers of energy for heating. The vast majority of these buildings were constructed during the 20th century, before the modern thermal and building energy performance standards, resulting in widespread energy inefficiency. Improving their energy performance offers significant potential for reducing heating energy demand and achieving broader sustainability goals. This paper examines the potential for reducing specific heating energy demand in the multi-family housing stock of the EU and Serbia. The analysis is based on two key criteria-construction period and building typology-using relevant literature, European reference databases, and national documents for Serbia. Because of differences in data availability, a tailored approach was used: for the EU, detailed datasets allowed the analysis of specific heating energy demand and U-values of the thermal envelope, while for Serbia, the analysis relied on energy-improvement scenarios from reference data outlined in national documents, with a particular focus on ?lamela? type buildings from the state-directed housing construction period. The findings identify building types and periods most relevant for targeted energy upgrades, highlighting segments of the multi-family housing stock that offer the greatest strategic potential for large-scale improvements.