Mould growth on building materials is a complex phenomenon involving various causes environmental conditions including temperature and relative humidity, nutrients, exposure time. Environmental conditions and nutrient are closely related to physical properties of building materials. Thus, the appropriate selection of building materials is very important for prevention of adverse health effects due to mould growth. The aim of this study is to determine the influence of the hygric properties of interior finishing materials on the mould growth. This paper presents the results of mould growth risk evaluation with variation of hygric properties of interior finishing materials using hygrothermal and bio-hygrothermal simulation approaches. An experimental study was conducted to characterize the hygric properties of wallpapers which are used mainly as interior finishing material in residential buildings. Six types of wallpapers and two type of hygric properties (water vapour transmission property and moisture storage function) were selected for the study. WUFI Plus was selected for a whole building hygrothermal simulation. The results from the hygrothermal simulation were used for the assessment of mould growth risk using a biohygrothermal calculation model, WUFI-Bio. The simulation results show the clear correlation between the mould growth rates and the hygric properties of wallpapers. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.