The Telegraph has run an article warning that ‘People are sleepwalking into buying properties that could soon plunge in value or become unsaleable due to looming red tape‘

Landlords cannot let a property with an EPC rating lower than ‘E’ unless they have a valid exemption (see here), it is anticipated this will be raised to a minimum of ‘C’ in a few years for landlords.

Some landlords have been making amendments in time, but many haven’t – see more details here.

The Government wants all properties to have a minimum EPC rating of ‘C’, including owner occupiers.  This means homes that require costly upgrades will attract higher morggae rates and will be harder to remortgage.  Once the Government’s targets are enforced, the values of homes with a low EPC rating will depreciate.

Richard Donnell, of property website Zoopla, said climnte change and the Government’s net zero targets would be as big an issue for the housing market over the coming years as rising interest rates.

‘It has not registered yet with British homeowners, they are not fully aware over the costs coming down the pipeline‘ said Mr Donnell.

Paula Higgins, founder of Home-Owners Alliance said, ‘People could become mortgage prisoners unable to get good rates, unable to, let out the properties and unable to sell‘

She went on to say ‘First-time buyers who may have to stretch themselves to get on the property ladder and often have little cash to spare for improvement works, will be worst off.  What we definitely don’t want to see is buyers who purchase something they can’t afford and then find they cant sell it.’

People could become mortgage prisoners unable to get good rates, unable to, let out the properties and unable to sell

The cost of upgrading a property from an energy performance certificate rating of D to C is up to £6,155, meaning the national retrofitting bill could be as much as £38bn, according to analysis by Habito.

It calculates that for one-bedroom flats or properties measuring under 55m² the cost is up to £3,653. For a small mid-terrace house (under 100m²), it is up to £6,400.

For a large family detached home (100-200m²) the potential cost rises to £12,540, more than double the national average.

Analysis of over 15 million homes across England & Wales by Rightmove has found that just under 1.7 million homes do not have the potential to improve higher than an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of between D and G

1.7 million properties do not have the potential to improve higher than an EPC rating of between D and G