Insulation a selling point for property
01 October 2008
Insulation
could be an important selling point for landlords looking to rent
their building now that landlords are required to show tenants the
Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for their property.
A building's rating – which can be anywhere from A to G – will be a
factor in negotiations, a recent survey showed.
The study from the Energy Saving Trust revealed that seven out of
10 tenants would use poor energy performance as leverage to drive
down the cost of rent.
A large majority (85 per cent) of respondents indicated that they
would demand that the asking price dropped by as much as a fifth if
the property scored badly on an EPC.
By the same token, landlords with a A-rated property would be in a
strong position to negotiate as various people would want to get
their hands on their building.
"We know that people will look to rent out places that are cheaper
to run – it's hardly rocket science," EST chief executive Philip
Sellwood said. "A poorly insulated three-bedroom semi-detached
house could move from band F to band C, saving a tenant £700 a year
on energy bills if the landlord installed straightforward
energy-saving measures such as insulation."
Prime Minister recently announced plans to offer free or half
priced insulation to homes which did not yet have it installed as a
way of bringing down energy consumption and costs.
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