Are EPCs set to become more important in future?

Initiatives by property portal Residential People and mortgage lenders Paragon Bank and Foundation Home Loans help people to find, buy or rent greener homes  have been welcomed by an industry pressure group.

Free to list portal Residential People has launched a filter allowing users to sort properties by EPC rating. The new ‘Energy Efficiency Class’ filter allows portal users to specify which level of energy efficiency they would like in their home, and view only those properties that match their chosen category.

Meanwhile Paragon and Foundation Home Loans offer a bigger discount on mortgage interest rates for properties with EPC ratings of A, B or C. 

Now the industry group the Property Energy Professionals Association has welcomed new measures as ways to highlight the importance of energy efficiency when home buyers and landlords are purchasing residential properties. 

Andrew Parkin, PEPA chairman, says: “Improving the energy efficiency of homes is vitally important to achieving the carbon emission reduction target that the UK has set for 2035. 

“The EPC is currently used for Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards within the private rental sector sector, and the remit of the EPC will expand over the coming years for similar and increasing standards in this sector and the owner-occupied sectors, so stakeholders and consumers need to have access to data and tools to better understand their assets. 

“Trailblazing initiatives such as those introduced by Residential People, and Paragon and Foundation Home Loans are warmly welcomed. 

“EPCs play a key role in helping homeowners and property purchasers identify the most energy efficient properties, as well as the most cost-effective measures that they can take to improve the EPC rating of a property.”

The group says it’s working with government to continuously improve the EPC document, the underlying methodologies and the access to data, via the government’s EPC Action Plan.