With less than four years left until the government wants all new private rented properties to be rated at least EPC ‘C’, new research reveals a lack of confidence from landlords that they will meet the deadline.
Current legislation in England and Wales requires buy to let properties to have an EPC rating of ‘E’ or above.
However, in order to improve the energy efficiency of rental properties, the government wants to increase the requirement to a ‘C’ rating for all new tenancies by 2025 and for all existing tenancies by 2028.
According to the poll of around 750 landlords, conducted by The Mortgage Works, more than a third (35%) say they are not confident they will be able to bring their properties up to the required energy efficiency standard. This is not only due to a lack of available capital but also a lack of awareness regarding what it takes to achieve that ‘C’ rating.
The TMW research highlights a number of challenges facing landlords in their attempts to meet the new sustainability requirements.
Only 10 per cent believe they will not face any challenges with the target, while 51 per cent think there are tough hurdles on the way to meeting the new rules.
Landlords with larger property portfolios were more likely to face potential challenges than those with a smaller number of properties, especially when it comes to property constraints (66 per cent for those with 11 or more properties, against 49 per cent with 10 or fewer.
Some 61 per cent of landlords say they will need to spend money to get their properties up to an EPC ‘C’ standard - for 14 per cent that will mean spending all of their annual rental income, and perhaps even more.
Even if the money is available, some 11 per cent of landlords admit they have no idea of what work is required and don’t know where to start.
Daniel Clinton, head of The Mortgage Works, says: “Given the concerns and challenges facing landlords in not only making the necessary improvements, but financing them, it’s perhaps no surprise that more than a third of landlords are not confident they will be able to bring their properties up to the required EPC ‘C’ standard.”
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