Rightmove Greener Homes Report 2023

Download the Rightmove Greener Homes report 2023

Are homes in the UK going greener? Are we, at the very least, making progress towards making homes more energy-efficient?

The government has a target to get as many homes ‘as practicable’ up to an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C by 2035. Our data shows that 60% of homes for sale on Rightmove – and 50% of homes available to rent – have an EPC rating of D or below.

If EPC improvements carry on at the current rate, it would take 43 years for 100% of the houses that are currently for sale across Great Britain to reach an EPC rating of A-C, and 31 years for houses that are currently available to rent.

The second edition of our Rightmove Greener Homes Report is an in-depth study that looks into the challenges and behaviours to creating more sustainable homes in the UK.

We’ve asked thousands of home-owners and landlords to share their views on the practical challenges to creating more sustainable homes, and to find out more about the energy-saving changes they’re already making.

A year on from our first report, there are still significant hurdles in the pathway to greener homes. But some progress is being made.

The Future Homes Standard is a positive move for new homes to be Net Zero carbon ready from 2025, with exciting innovations happening in this sector, which has the benefit of building from scratch.

The benefit of making green improvements can be seen in the overall premium that a seller can command. Our analysis shows that sellers who have improved their home from an EPC rating of an F up to a C could command an average price premium of almost £56,000 (+15%) on top of the local house price growth.

And property sales listings that mention electric car charging points are up by 592% versus 2019.

The role of retrofitting

According to the UK Green Building Council, 80% of buildings that will be occupied in 2050 already exist today, meaning that retrofitting existing homes is critical.

For home-owners, there are not only the cost barriers to retrofit, but also a lack of knowledge on what’s best to do, and where to start. Only 4% of homeowners have plans to have a heat pump installed in their home.

And with the jump in energy bills, some tenants and first-time buyers are starting to consider a property’s energy efficiency as a major factor when choosing their next home.

But two in five landlords with one property say they’re more likely to sell up than make improvements. And 61% saying they would not now buy a rental property below an EPC rating of C, up from 47% when asked last year.

So how are we tackling this challenge, and what still needs to be done to help?

More help and much more significant incentives are needed for home-owners and landlords to help them to retrofit properties.

New measures would need to be carefully thought through, but our report suggests that things like stamp duty rebates and much more significant mortgage and remortgage incentives could be considered to help encourage more people to make green improvements.

The full Greener Homes report also includes:

• A regional view of stock by EPC ratings and the improvements versus 2019
• Improvements since 2019 of the annual CO2 emissions that homes produce
• The most common green improvements that home-owners have made
• The technological innovations that new homes developers are making, with the advantage of building from scratch rather than needing to retrofit

Take a look at the Rightmove Greener Homes Report 2023

READ MORE: View our Energy-Efficiency Guides