There’s a lot of changing regulation in the Private Rental Sector, encouraging investor landlords to boost energy efficiency of their properties.
This is a more daunting challenge for landlords and investors than even the Renters’ Rights legislation. A lot of housing stock is older or Victorian in nature and it can be really challenging to improve the energy efficiency of a building without major investment. Even then, many buildings will not hit the exacting levels the government are setting for EPCs.
I achieved the targeted ‘C’ for our EPC – Energy Performance Certificate on our Surrey Victorian development project, but this was part of a development and back-to-brick, retrofit. Not all landlords can do this to boost energy efficiency.
How have we boosted the Energy efficiency for our property, a Victorian house?
Well we didn’t do anything whizzy to boost energy efficiency. Just good old-fashioned insulation and quality building.
Now you might be thinking that isn’t so impressive. However let me give the context. The main house is a Victorian semi-detached house. We retrofitted the existing main house as well as extending it.
Catering for the long term Energy-performance now – in preparation for 2030 – helps with the profitability of buy-to-let investments. By holding properties long term we minimise churn rate expenses -that is the sale and purchase costs when regularly buying and selling.
The bonus of the development work is we increased the floor space by 43%, from 72 sqm to 103 sqm. I had done a rough-and-ready calculation and thought the build work would boost floorspace to 93 sqm. So I was delighted with the extra 10 sqm.
At the time of doing our work, the focus was on the U-Value. That is thermal transmittance and how effective a material is at insulation. The lower the value, the more efficient the material.
This was based on SAP methodology (Standard Assessment Procedure) to determine the EPC rating. This is being overhauled by the government, so existing EPC ratings could change under the new system. It is meant to become clearer in 2026 what the new system is, what that means for buy-to-let landlords and which levers to pull to boost energy efficiency.
For our specification we had the standard new build insulation which exceeded Building Regulations for the original Victorian part of the building.
Boosting energy efficiency of the original Victorian part of the house – retrofit:
Ground floor – 150mm PIR board (Polyurethane Insulation) between floor joists U-Value 0.15 (W/m2.k)
First floor 100mm acoustic rock wool insulation between joists
Existing solid single skin brick wall – 62.5 mm PIR board and 50 mm gap U-value 0.28
Loft 100mm PIR board packed between the roof rafters and a further 100mm on top of the ceiling joists. U-value 0.12
And as I’ve discovered, it’s all very well having a great specification, and a thorough Schedule of Works. But if it isn’t followed through on site to check that that is indeed what the builders have done, then the EPC rating might as well go out of the window. It is based on actual work done, not planned or scheduled work.
You can check a property’s EPC rating here
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Disclaimer: Property Venture® is not offering advice. It has outlined information in layman’s terms for the reader to be better-informed.
With regard to in-country legislation, letting licences and taxation laws, then you must take appropriate legal or taxation advice during your purchase process, at which time your solicitor or advisor will discuss with you up-to-date legislation and costs.
