A new survey reveals that rental properties with an EPC rating below C are already more difficult to sell to other landlords, despite uncertainty over when strict energy efficiency rules kick in.
A survey for Foundation Home Loans reveals that 71 per cent of almost 1,000 landlords who responded said they were unlikely to buy a property which has an EPC rating of less than C - for portfolio landlords in particular, there is even more suspicion of low EPCs.
Fewer than one in five felt that the EPC rating would not be a key factor in deciding what they would buy and when.
The English Housing Survey says that in 2021, of the nine million PRS households, some 44 per cent were band A to C, 42 per cent on band D while the remaining 14 per cent lived in homes with a band of E to G. =
“While we still might be waiting for certainty and clarity over when the Government is likely to introduce its minimum EPC Level legislation for the private rental sector, it’s clear from this research that landlords are aware of what is likely to be coming, and are thinking seriously about their existing portfolios, how they might fund improvements, and what their plans might be when this is introduced” says Grant Hendry, sales director at Foundation Home Loans.
“With landlords anticipating a cost of over £10k per property to improve its EPC Level to C, it is perhaps not surprising they are disinclined to buy properties already below this. In effect, they are future-proofing their portfolios by opting only to buy C and above properties now, while they will presumably focus on those properties within their portfolio which are not currently at this level.”
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Makes sense.
Why would any intelligent PRS landlord entertain purchasing a unit that's not fit-for-purpose. Houses and flats with an EPC of Grade E are so energy wasteful that the tenant/customer cannot afford to turn on the heating for the entire winter. They and their children are cold for months and months. Even without the Tory's very successful 2015 Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) Regs it's clearly crazy own an investment where your customer is so dissatisfied and cold. No business has ever succeeded in the long term by failing to update their product.
All of these units can be improved by simply installing external or internal wall insulation (have you read-up on the new slimline Celotex product?), installing 2 x layers of Rockwool in the loft and swapping out dumb electric panel wall rads running on expensive day-time electricity .
You do make me smile, everything is so simple & easy!! - my experience is that to save a couple of hundred pounds of energy costs to the tenants I will need a spend of around £10K per flat - who pays for this??
Contrary to what you say external & internal wall insulation are not simple or cheap to install - for most properties in most areas you will need planning permission to install external wall insulation & extending roof lines is not to be treated as a 'simple' process.
Please quote building regulations for the products you are recommending - this will give the the thicknesses required of various types of insulation products to achieve the heat loss improvements required to meet the proposed values.
Flawed climate crisis net zero agenda now hitting property values and saleability. More to come..... stranded assets likely
Flawed climate crisis net zero agenda now hitting property values and saleability. More to come..... stranded assets likely
And right on cue, up pops Gibbons with his gibberish.
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