Advice on buying/selling flat with electric heating and energy efficiency rating of D/E

daveshorty

Hi all,

We're first time buyers and looking at a flat that has electric heaters and a water tank rather than central heating, and has an energy efficiency rating of D (but right on the border with E at 55). The flat is lovely and the sellers have given us details of their heating costs through winter and they seem fine and within budget. But we're a bit unsure of whether these factors might make it more difficult to re-sell in a few years' time when we're ready to move on.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated!

FreeBear

Gas is only going to get more and more expensive, and eventually it will run out. At that point, (nearly) everyone will be using electricity for heating. High retention night storage heaters on the appropriate tariff would be the second cheapest way to heat the flat. Panel/convection/IR heaters coming it at third place. A wet system using an electric boiler, the worst of the lot. A heat pump would be the most cost effective system to run (on par with current gas boilers), but it may be difficult (and expensive) to install an effective system in a flat.

There are campaigns going on at present to get the current EPC system overhauled - If/when that happens, you may well find electric heating scores better and push you in to a solid D, or even close to a C. Even if that doesn't happen, properties will still be in demand, so you shouldn't have any real trouble selling in the future (just watch out for steep services charge & any scheduled works).

Gentoo365

It probably would make it more difficult to sell. 

If that's your concern then unfortunately the reality is it reduces the amount of people who would be interested.

Is it a compromise thing? i.e. is it an old, nice building that is just hard to make energy efficient. I think people are more accepting of energy efficiency if it's a 'character' or stylish building.  Less so if it's just some old council flat.

daveshorty

Gentoo365 said:

It probably would make it more difficult to sell. 

If that's your concern then unfortunately the reality is it reduces the amount of people who would be interested.

Is it a compromise thing? i.e. is it an old, nice building that is just hard to make energy efficient. I think people are more accepting of energy efficiency if it's a 'character' or stylish building.  Less so if it's just some old council flat.

My gut feeling is the same.

It's not really a character building - def more toward ex-council end of the spectrum. I can't share links at the moment as I'm a new account on here, but can maybe pop a DM if helpful

peterhjohnson

You or a future buyer might want to rent it out. Currently you couldn't do that if the EPC was "F" and there were proposals to reduce this to "C". Those got scrapped but they might be reintroduced.

Albermarle

daveshorty said:

Gentoo365 said:

It probably would make it more difficult to sell. 

If that's your concern then unfortunately the reality is it reduces the amount of people who would be interested.

Is it a compromise thing? i.e. is it an old, nice building that is just hard to make energy efficient. I think people are more accepting of energy efficiency if it's a 'character' or stylish building.  Less so if it's just some old council flat.

My gut feeling is the same.

It's not really a character building - def more toward ex-council end of the spectrum. I can't share links at the moment as I'm a new account on here, but can maybe pop a DM if helpful

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BonaDea

I think it would make it more difficult.  I am looking to buy at the moment and expect a 'C' as minimum, and would prefer B.  I'd consider a 'D' if I really really liked the property otherwise, but only if according to the EPC it would be possible to get it up towards the top end of 'C' with the improvements recommended, and in that case, I'd be knocking the cost of improvements + xxxx% for hassle and disruption, off the price I'd offer.  

You say you plan to be there for a 'few years' - how many exactly?  3, or 10?  If you're going to be there a while it might be worth planning to instal central heating as soon as you can on moving in, and again, get some estimates for the price off that and knock it off the offer you make to the vendor.

theartfullodger

If not already storage radiators then replace current leccy heaters with them.  Better EPC 

RHemmings

daveshorty said:

Hi all,

We're first time buyers and looking at a flat that has electric heaters and a water tank rather than central heating, and has an energy efficiency rating of D (but right on the border with E at 55). The flat is lovely and the sellers have given us details of their heating costs through winter and they seem fine and within budget. But we're a bit unsure of whether these factors might make it more difficult to re-sell in a few years' time when we're ready to move on.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated!

Previously I was in a house with perhaps similar energy efficiency. Though, it was bigger than the standard flat.

I really didn't like the fact that I couldn't heat it up properly without it being very expensive, which pushed me in the don't heat the house heat the person route, and I really like electric blankets now. 

Even if the sellers had reasonable heating costs, you need to ask to what degree they heated it. E.g. were they skinflints like me not keeping the whole property warm? Only bits of it. Which can be easier with electric heating, as it is easier to just heat selected spaces. 

With flats it's sometimes harder to add insulation compared to a house. So, that may be limited as a way forward in the future in terms of keeping costs under control. 

I'm not advising you not to buy, but in your position I'd definitely want to know more about how they heated it, not just the overall cost.