Moving homes and energy poverty: residents’ concerns, capabilities and responses

In the study of energy poverty and vulnerability, limited attention has been paid to the social differentiation and unequal capacities to act. This study examined housing mobility as part of energy action space, asking how the possibility, or impossibility, of moving home shapes energy vulnerability. In-depth interviews (n = 29) conducted during 2024 and 2025 with Finnish residents of detached houses investigated how moving home is discussed after the rapid rise in energy prices in 2022. Some households experience a lock-in beyond their control and inability to move, resulting in aggravated concern for the energy costs and living conditions in their house. Whilst moving home might be a form of effective energy action, it is difficult due to financial constraints, health, housing market conditions or emotional attachment. Moving home also requires capacities of anticipation and timely action. Housing immobility forms a layer of vulnerability that coexists with other forms of vulnerability. The findings challenge the assumption that owner-occupants of detached houses do not experience energy poverty due to their asset ownership.

POLICY RELEVANCE

Energy policy instruments that focus narrowly on prices or on energy efficiency risk overlooking how energy vulnerability is produced through housing trajectories and immobility. Particularly in contexts where home ownership is widespread, policies need to consider the barriers of moving homes and relocating. Public authorities need to consider how housing development, renovation support and mobility options shape the energy action space. Policy should support not only energy retrofits but also feasible housing alternatives and options that allow households to move before their vulnerability becomes entrenched. In more general terms, recognising that people may move home because of high energy costs and poor energy efficiency can help to support market developments towards energy retrofits, not only in the stock of owner-occupied detached houses but also in the rental market, in which property owners need to retrofit to keep their assets attractive.