The European building stock was renewed at a rapid pace during the period 1950-1975. In many European countries the building stock from this time needs to be renovated. There is an opportunity to introduce energy efficiency measures in the renovation process, but in this process social aspects should also be taken into account. The purpose of this article is to provide an estimate of the economic and societal challenge of renovating and energy retrofitting the aging building stock. Building specific data on energy usage and previous renovation investments made in the multi-family dwellings in Gothenburg (N = 5 098) is aligned with data on tenure type and average income. Based on conducted energy retrofitting projects, costs are estimated for renovating and energy retrofitting multi-family dwellings that will reach the service life of 50 years before 2026. It is found that the pace of renovation needs to increase and that there is risk of increasing societal inequity due to rent increases in renovated buildings. © 2016 The Authors.