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Willingness to pay for sustainable and circular transitions in the built environment: a literature review

Year: 2026
Type: review
Study design: Systematic Review
Abstract: The transition towards a sustainable and circular built environment requires not only technical solutions and policy ambition, but also demand-side conditions that enable low-carbon, resource-efficient and circular strategies to be adopted. This review synthesizes stated-preference willingness-to-pay (WTP) evidence across sustainable and circular strategies in the built environment. Following PRISMA, 780 records from Scopus and Web of Science were screened through eligibility filtering, duplicate removal, title/abstract/keyword screening and full-text eligibility assessment, resulting in 67 peer-reviewed studies in buildings and construction. A structured content synthesis examined strategy types, actor groups, payment vehicles, WTP values and determinants. The evidence base remains concentrated on residential energy performance, energy-label improvements, retrofits and green-certified buildings, while explicitly circular strategies remain marginal. Reported WTP values are strongly shaped by payment architecture: recurring rent, fee and bill frames generate bounded monthly values, whereas purchase-price and retrofit-cost frames produce larger capitalized amounts, and actor-side circularity evidence is commonly reported as percentage cost premia. A harmonized determinant synthesis identifies three regimes shaping WTP: economic bounds and financing logic; information architecture and label design; and governance feasibility and assurance. The findings position WTP as a demand-side signal for designing financing, disclosure and assurance enablers for sustainable, circular and net-zero built-environment transitions.
DOI: 10.1080/09613218.2026.2716107
Language: English
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7203676311
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Cites: 105
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