Over a third of all properties currently listed for sale have a EPC rating below C, climbing to 46% in some major cities.
Labour has already pledged that all privately rented properties must hold an EPC rating of C or above by 2030. For those landlords who currently don’t meet this criteria, it’s estimated that the average cost of bringing a rental property up to standard in England currently stands at £8,000, a further cost that could dent buy-to-let investor appetites.
The new analysis covers over 1m properties listed for sale with 33.8% not meeting the new target.
In Wales, this figure stands at 50.1%, in Scotland it’s 45.7%, whilst England is home to the most compliant investment opportunities, although 33.2% of current for sale listings still fail to meet the proposed minimum, as they currently have an EPC rating of D or worse.
The same analysis of for sale stock across 15 major cities shows that Bradford is home to the least energy efficient investment opportunities. Some 46.2% of all homes currently listed across that city have an EPC rating below C, with Edinburgh (39.6%), Brighton (39.4%), Bristol (33.9%) and Nottingham (33.5%) also some of the worst offenders.
London is home to the most energy efficient for sales market at present, although 23.5% still miss the target.
A spokesperson for the firm behind the survey, epIMS, says: “The requirement to meet an EPC C rating will be the latest initiative that will require many landlords to make further investment, with the average cost of achieving such compliance coming in at around £8,000 per property.
“The issue is that the Government takes a fabric first approach with regard to energy efficiency and that isn’t always the most cost effective route for landlords. For example, small changes such as installing PV panels is far more affordable than internal or external wall installation, but could be just the strategy needed to achieve the C threshold.
“This mitigates the need for landlords to spend more than they have to, which in turn reduces the chance that these costs will be passed onto tenants in the form of rental increases, leading to a far less disruptive landscape for renters themselves.”