"While environmental concerns are a consideration for many home buyers, it is the record-breaking cost of energy that is dominating most buyers’ thinking at present"
Although the government’s ‘Energy Price Guarantee’ has placed a cap on the scale of recent energy price rises, average winter bills are still estimated to have almost doubled since last winter. Asked which factor was most likely to influence their decision to buy a more energy-efficient home, 35% said rising energy costs.
Chris Druce, senior research analyst at Knight Frank, said: “While environmental concerns are a consideration for many home buyers, it is the record-breaking cost of energy that is dominating most buyers’ thinking at present. Although wholesale energy prices are expected to fall back later this year, it is unlikely that buyers’ mindsets will change quickly."
The prospect of future environmental regulations affecting the value of inefficient homes was the second most popular response polling 20%, while 18% of respondents stated a preference to own a greener home and said, if necessary, they would pay more for it.
The survey also found that 76% of people thought having access to an electric vehicle charging point was either more or equally important than a year ago. Electric cars outsold diesel-powered alternatives for the first time in 2022.
Boosting the value of a home
The energy efficiency of England’s housing stock has improved over time. However, despite the government’s stated ambition to upgrade all homes to an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C by 2035, more than half of existing houses carry a rating of D or below.
While cost remains a barrier for some to make changes, improving your home’s EPC rating could increase its value by as much as 20%, an analysis by Knight Frank found.
When asked what improvements homeowners plan to make to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, half cited energy-efficient lightbulbs. More substantive measures included fitting double or triple glazing; draught-proofing; and loft or roof installation, which all polled 38%.
Despite the government putting heat pumps at the centre of plans to decarbonise UK households –gas boilers will no longer be fitted in new-build properties from 2025 - just 17% of survey respondents said they intended to install one. Underlining the scale of the challenge, the ONS calculated that as of March 2022, 80% of households with an EPC are using gas to power their central heating system.
