Green Deals

With the government pushing for greener more energy efficient homes in the UK, we often talk to clients about making their place more energy efficient? We were also looking at a survey done by Santander in 2022 which found that a new energy efficient boiler and solar panels are the top home improvement aspirations, even above a new kitchen.

Several lenders have introduced not only ‘Green Deals’ that benefit borrowers purchasing or having a A or B EPC rating but have introduced deals for existing borrowers at significantly discounted rates to borrow additional money to help get their properties to a better EPC rating. Most notable is Nationwide who are offering (at the time of this blog) 0% fixed rate deals for 2 or 5 years, allowing existing customers to borrow some additional money to help lower their bills and make their properties more efficient.

On the property investment side it would benefit landlords to try to get their current EPC ratings higher. The government are currently looking to, from 2028, make a rating of ‘C’ or above compulsory to be able to rent out a property. Although we are seeing less deals to assist landlords like the Nationwide offering, it would still be wise for landlords to take heed and consider looking at ways to get their property EPC rating up, even if this means borrowing a little money at re-mortgage time to get some of the works done.

Currently there doesn’t seem to be any plans on making a minimum EPC to sell a property however a better EPC rating may make your home more appealing to new potential buyers as they will benefit from lower bills and not have to go through the works themselves. This being said with all the changes being put forward and the push to make the country more energy efficient, I would not be surprised if we see minimum sale EPCs or at least this being looked in to, however this is just a hunch!

One useful tool that we do have access to is to help plan what to spend your money on and what cost saving this is likely to have. All we need is some basic information around your property and a plan can be made!

If this is something that you want to discuss then give us a call and see if we can help you.