In the framework of the international projects TABULA and EPISCOPE residential building typologies have been created in 20 European countries. Each national typology consists of a classification scheme grouping buildings according to their size, age and further parameters and a set of exemplary buildings representing these building types. U-values of different age bands and energy expenditure factors of heat generators of these buildings are being compared. In addition, synthetical average buildings have been defined which are statistically representative for specific age and size bands and enable projections of the energy performance to the total housing stocks. Based on the common data structure the energy performance of the average buildings is calculated in a standardised way to form simplified housing stock models. In the context of inhomogeneous building stocks of European countries the results allow an understanding of the average and variation of parameters like U-values, supply system performances or final energy. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.