EPC upgrades can boost a property’s value by £28,000

Landlords and homeowners could boost their property value by to £28,000 when upgrading its EPC rating, research reveals.

Development site finder Searchland has analysed how much value is added and how much it costs to do the necessary work.

The firm says that moving from a D to a C rating adds 3% to a home’s market value – based on the current average house price of £285,861, that’s an extra £8,576.

But you would need to spend £7,401, so the net value added is £1,175.

‘EPCs felt like an afterthought’

Mitchell Fasanya, the co-founder and chief executive of Searchland, said: “For a long time, EPCs felt like an afterthought.

“Yes, a good rating was nice to have, but few people made significant efforts to improve their score – it just didn’t seem necessary.

“Today, however, this has all changed and with climate change now a hot topic, EPCs are front and centre of the conversation.”

He added: “Should the government’s proposal [to set a deadline for EPC improvements] – which is currently in the theoretical and embryonic stage – come to fruition, it will have a massive impact on the property investment industry and might even deter some investors from broadening their portfolios.

“But this new research shows that real money can be made by those who are ahead of the game and make the choice to deliver upgrades before they are forced to by central government.

“Improving an EPC rating is now a win-win move, and all property owners and investors should think long and hard about taking proactive action.”

Upgrading costs go up

The research shows that if a property’s current rating is lower than D, the financial benefits are even bigger – though the upgrading costs do go up.

For example, going from E to C adds 7% in value, which is £20,010 based on the average house price.

The work will cost £10,148, which means the net value added is £9,862.

Searchland says the best returns come from going from F to C, which boosts market value by 15%, or £42,879.

The cost of the upgrades is £14,670, which means the net value added is £28,209.