Buying a house despite the EPC rating

[thankyounextplease]

My partner and I have finally found our dream home after several years of looking, but the max EPC according to the listing is a C (currently a D).

We are not planning to rent it out but having talked to an estate agent in the process of buying their own house lately, it seems like they are very focused on that being the biggest priority when buying their own houses.

Our current house is a B.

Although we don't have plans to rent out the new house, will it make it difficult to sell in future? My partner thinks it will and doesn't want to go ahead and buy it just in case. I think that it doesn't matter and it's all a lot of gumf that could change anyway if they decide to add more/change the system/not go ahead with restrictions.

Thoughts?

YABU = it wouldn't put me off, buy the house
YANBU = it's too risky as there's so much money involved

That doesn't sound too bad at all. The house we recently bought was a D and it's a modern, well-insulated house with double glazing.

What are the things that require improvement?

C is pretty good tbh. I had a guy come and do my epc as it had expired. He was very casual about it and got a lot wrong, which needed to be corrected. Have you had a survey? How old is the epc? Good luck with the house ☺️

I don't think I've ever considered a EPC rating.

Mines a 1930s and is a D. EPC didn't really cross my mind tbh as we can always make improvements.

Well this is it, if it maxes out at C and in future people are expecting B because that's what the government is bringing in for rentals (if not ownership) it could be sticky.

Thanks, we're not at that stage yet so maybe we need more details...

There is a statistic on EPCs in England & Wales that indicate the average rating is a 60D - not sure where you are located though - so a D is not too bad in the grand scheme of things. I agree however that peoples' awareness is increasing around EPC ratings though. My property which is a 1950s terraced house is currently a 68D, without cavity wall insulation so I am particularly interested in measures to increase ratings as I'd like to get it to a C, and have several things in mind to do that before I move next time. I'm also a DEA which helps. What is the numerical part of the rating you have? 68 is the top end of the D band, so if its close to that then you won't have much to do too much potentially to get into a C. Bear in mind the recommendations on the EPC don't include everything that's possible to do to a property to increase it's rating. Just one example under the current methodology for example, you could just keep adding solar (beyond the 2.5kWp EPC Recommendtion) as much as you can to raise the rating. There are also things that don't appear in the recommendations list at all. The methodology is going to change in a year or two however, and the single rating present on EPCs is likely to be replaced with separate ratings for different aspects of the property such as Building Fabric, Heating System, Smart Readiness (I'd need to look up the recent government consultations to check the others). Properties in the private rental sector are also likely to need a C or 'equivalent' from 2028/2030 so EPC ratings are coming under more focus and you are right to have this in mind, although I wouldn't let it rule out your choice of property without checking with a decent local DEA first. Hope that helps.