Up to 95 per cent of care homes and hospitals in Belgium will require major renovation if they are to meet European energy-efficiency standards by 2050, while the country’s

ageing population is expected to put further pressure on healthcare capacity, the construction federation Embuild said on Monday.

The warning comes as increasingly frequent and severe heatwaves expose vulnerabilities in buildings designed for a very different climate. Embuild argues that the large-scale construction and renovation programme expected over the coming decades should be used not only to improve energy performance but also to make healthcare facilities safer and more resilient during periods of extreme heat.

“We must use this wave of construction and renovation to adapt nursing and care homes to changing climate conditions,” said Niko Demeester, chief executive of Embuild.

The federation is calling for modernisation measures including high-quality glazing, better insulation and effective ventilation. It also says buildings should increasingly be equipped with external sun shading and air-conditioning systems where necessary to prevent indoor temperatures from becoming dangerously high.

The challenge is being compounded by demographic change. Embuild estimates that by 2050 Belgium will have around one-third more people aged between 65 and 85, while the number of people aged over 85 is expected to double.

That shift is likely to drive a substantial expansion of healthcare infrastructure. According to Embuild, Belgium will need an additional 486 care centres and seven hospitals to accommodate the growing demand.

The construction sector says the figures underline the need for policymakers to treat healthcare infrastructure as a long-term investment rather than simply a response to demographic pressure.

Renovating existing facilities and constructing new ones at the same time could provide an opportunity to combine energy efficiency with climate adaptation. For hospitals and residential care facilities, where many occupants are particularly vulnerable to high temperatures, the issue is not merely one of comfort but of health and safety.

With Europe experiencing increasingly intense heat events, Embuild says the country cannot afford to build or renovate healthcare facilities without taking future climate conditions into account. The federation's message is that Belgium's next generation of hospitals and care homes must be designed to cope with both an ageing population and a warmer climate.