Rising numbers of buyers searching for environmentally friendly homes

Despite Liz Truss’s recent announcement that the typical household energy bill would be capped at £2,500 annually, costs are still surging, making energy efficiency higher on many people’s agendas.

Some homes go much further than simply matching building regulations. They go over and above the call of duty in an attempt to cut bills and carbon emissions back to zero. Green building in Britain is moving past the experimental stage and into the mainstream.

Gone are the days when only grand designers were able to live in eco-houses, built to bespoke standards by enthusiasts willing to invest huge amounts of time and money in creating a home that would use less energy than it could generate through innovations such as solar panels and wind turbines.

While not all new-builds are A-rated, statistically a vastly higher proportion of newly built properties have top A or B ratings when it comes to EPCs, compared with existing properties, where the average is a D.

Nationwide found that properties in the A-C top-rated EPC bracket currently pay an average £1,700 on bills per year (based on the April 2022 price cap). But those in the bottom tier F-G properties are paying more than twice as much, at around £3,900 per year.

In the private rented sector, when thinking about saving money, all landlords must now consider the EPCs of their rental properties. At present, rental homes must achieve a rating of E or higher, but this could soon rise to a C, which may pose problems for many investors.

As a way of future-proofing, growing numbers of landlords are considering new-builds. While the initial outlay can be higher, this can be weighed up against the cost of retrofitting an older home to bring it up to standard, as well as the premium rents new-builds can attract from tenants.

With tenants also prioritising the cost of living, more landlords are reporting questions from prospective tenants about energy prices at properties to let. This is another way that new-builds could prove more attractive to a wider group of tenants, with lower energy costs proving extremely attractive.