Building a sustainable tomorrow, today

It’s become increasingly important to consider the energy efficiency of your investment property. The cost of living crisis has highlighted the need to review our dependency on traditional energy consumption, and making home improvements is one way¹ to help reduce monthly bills whilst also supporting a more sustainable future and protecting your investment.

Currently, the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for a property needs to be ‘E’ or above to be let to tenants.

Proposals from the UK government suggest that by 2025, all properties beginning a new tenancy will require an EPC rating of ‘C’ or above. The changes will be phased in and expanded to all tenancies from 2028.

Our short whitepaper - Confronting the EPC Challenge* - analysed the proposed regulations and the impact this legislation could have on landlords and the Private Rented Sector.

Our latest research on the EPC challenge found²:

• 23% of landlords said their properties hold an EPC rating of D or below
• 25% of landlords are unaware of the specific energy efficiency rating of their properties
• Older homes are likely to have a lower EPC rating and require improvement
• 30% of landlords with Victorian era properties in their portfolio said they were rated D or below

The landlords we surveyed believed they could lose up to £9.5k a year in missed rental payments if they’re unable to make changes ahead of the 2025 deadline.

28% of the landlords surveyed in our research admit that tenants have complained about the property’s EPC rating, with 16% having had received complaints multiple times.

The good news is once the EPC rating of your property improves, it can reap many benefits by protecting:

• The property’s value
• Rental potential
• Marketability

Lower utility bills can be attractive to tenants, an issue that has been brought into even sharper focus given the changing cost of living landscape, and if you considered putting a property on the market, 89% of buyers³ said they’d want a sustainable home.

Our EPC whitepaper highlighted the challenges our customers could face and the need for the market to support landlords with this transition. We wanted to evolve the way we design our proposition to ensure that we can make a real difference, supporting our brokers and their clients in the right way.

So, we launched our Buy-to-Let Energy Efficiency Discount.

New customers that have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of a ‘C’ or above will be able to obtain the Energy Efficiency Discount on their arrangement fee.

For new mortgages on properties where the EPC rating improves to at least a ‘C’ during the mortgage term with us, you can apply for a partial refund of their arrangement fee, plus the cost of the new certificate (up to £100).

For example, on a £250k mortgage you could expect to save up to £1,500 on the arrangement fee for an EPC held or achieved of ‘A’.

Unfortunately, our Energy Efficiency Discount is not available for new customers who completed on a buy-to-let mortgage with us before Friday 6th May 2022.

However, existing customers that switch products, or refinance, with us**, will receive a 50% discount on the arrangement fee, so will pay 1.00% instead of the standard arrangement fee of 2.00%. In addition to this, if your property has an EPC rating of C or above, the Energy Efficiency Discount can be applied as well. This would include moving from an unregulated bridging mortgage to a buy-to-let mortgage with us.

For example, on a £250k mortgage an existing customer could expect to save up to £4,000 on the arrangement fee for an EPC held or achieved of ‘A’.

Energy efficiency is becoming increasingly important to support a more sustainable future for all. 

By showing proactivity now, landlords will be in a strong position for the future and one step ahead of the proposed changes to EPC regulation set to arrive in 2025.

It’s the ideal time to consider how you can improve the energy efficiency of your buy-to-let portfolio, so speak to your broker today to find out more about how Shawbrook could help.

_{*Research Methodology}

_{Shawbrook Bank contracted Opinium to undertake research between 18th and 25th November 2021 to understand landlords’ awareness of the upcoming changes to the Energy Performance Certification (EPC), which will require properties to be rated ‘C’ or above by 2025 in order to begin a new tenancy. A total 1,000 UK landlords were surveyed.}

_{**Product switches and refinance mortgage applications are subject to the case meeting our lending criteria.}

_{[1] https://www.moneysupermarket.com/gas-and-electricity/energy-saving-tips/}

_{[2] https://www.countryliving.com/uk/homes-interiors/property/a34050753/eco-home-features/}

_{[3] https://www.shawbrook.co.uk/media/4498/epc-report-20220203.pdf}