The residential sector in the European Union accounts for 25.4% of the final energy consumption and 20.8% of the CO2 emissions. Greater savings and efficiency in the sector are expected through the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). In the case of Spain, this directive is implemented through the Basic Energy-Saving Document of the Technical Building Code (CTE-DB-HE). This study presents an energy and environmental analysis of the EPBD implementation and evolution toward nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEBs) in a multi-family housing block. The locations of the studied building span 24 cities representative of the hot and temperate climate zones in Spain. This study complements a similar study conducted for the cold climate zones in Spain. The evolution of the regulation is studied through 5 cases and 3 proposals that seek to achieve NZEBs. The results reveal that reductions of more than 50% in energy demand, more than 68% in non-renewable primary energy consumption and more than 65% in CO2 emissions are achieved with the current regulation. In addition, this article shows how the CTE-DB-HE can evolve to achieve NZEBs. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.