A big question I have always had is how much do people value energy efficiency in their homes? This is one of the core attributes I look for in a property, but then there are so many of these ‘core attributes’ and there aren’t that many properties. To what extent am I willing to trade off energy efficiency if we get the perfect house in all other aspects?

There also does not seem to be that many really good energy efficient homes. Whenever I look at EPC reports, I find it very hard to find any A or B bands…often it is hard to find any which have the potential to become A or B! This is something we can answer from the data directly.

In the combined dataset, the most common band for EPC of houses sold is ‘Band D’ which has an energy efficiency score between 55-68; nearly half (44%) sit in this category. The next largest group is Band C (69-80) with 26% of all properties and then Band E (39-54) at 16%; one-tenth of one percent are in Band A (92-100) although 9% are in Band B (81-91). Thus, if I really wanted a Band A house, only one in one thousand house sales include one of these, so I will probably have to forgo many of those other things I would like in a home.

How does the value change by band? We can use our usual technique to answer this question, which we do in the graph below. This is one of our messier figures with quite wide confidence errors and not a super-consistent message; this to some extent is evidence in and of itself that all the other attributes we have discussed in these analyses have a much cleaner impact on house prices than their energy performance. Taking the easiest message to articulate from this, we can say that there is some evidence to suggest that properties with energy efficiency scores in Bands A and B have higher prices than those in all other bands.

Two other things are of note here. First, outside of Bands A and B (which make up less than 10% of sales in our dataset) there is limited difference in the values. Second, when we get to larger properties (above 150 square meters), Band A and B properties are valued the same as those in Band F. That is, energy efficiency appears only to be a predictor of house price for smaller properties, and even then, only for those in Band B or above. More delicate analysis needs to be conducted for the evidence to be conclusive, but a first glance of the data suggests that energy efficiency of homes is not significantly valued. If it were, would this not result in more higher banded properties?

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