Understanding the energy demand of cities is a challenge especially in countries such as Brazil where the lack of building energy consumption benchmarks makes it hard to decide upon interventions in the building stock, as neither the existing nor the attainable energy performance are known. Aiming to overcome these difficulties this study develops a framework to estimate the Energy Use Intensity (EUI) baseline of an existing building stock category based on the investigation of land use regulations, a land tax database and field surveys. These offer a starting point to estimate current energy consumption and promising interventions without having to study specific buildings in depth. A case study of the high-rise commercial building stock took place in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Three representative typologies were identified. For each of these, archetype energy models were created in order to assess EUI. The analysis of the EUI baselines highlights differences between archetypes, explaining the impact of technical choices on the overall electricity consumption and indicating a growing tendency of energy consumption for forthcoming buildings. The archetype analysis also provides knowledge to identify the most promising energy savings potential and thus to support further energy policies in the city. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.