Property data company Propalt has undertaken its largest study into EPC ratings across the four sectors of home ownership types looking at 9.2 million private rented properties housing association homes versus 16.8 million privately owned and council homes.

The findings where that the private rented sector is not upgrading homes at the rate needed to reach the governments ambitious targets of every rental property reaching a C rating.

By comparing the rates on new certificates issued in 2021,2022 and so far in 2023 Propalt where able to extrapolate that at the current rate of retrofit and reassessment it would take another 40 years to reach the ambitious target.

Co-Founder Kieran Slinger commented: “Because we can see the full portfolios of Landlords we are uniquely placed to see what’s happening. Looking at nearly 2 million rented homes and tracing back their EPC ratings we can see quite clearly that there are two distinct categories. Smaller Landlords with 10-20 homes in their portfolios are simply selling properties that are D and below. We can see an uplift in homes coming for sale at auction that belong to smaller landlords as they look to exit the market quickly.

“Larger landlords with the capacity to undertake the retrofit assessments are making the changes to their stock but not with anywhere near the voracity needed for the targets to be met. There was only a 1.6% increase in A-C certification on private rental stock compared with 3.8% of council and housing association properties in the same timeframe. Homeowners and councils have the most energy efficient homes with over 50% to a c or above rating privately and 60% of council stock achieving the same rating.”

Daniel Morgan, co-founder of Propalt, added: “Having been through the steps needed to perform a retrofit its not surprising that landlords are instead choosing to just take D rated stock out of their inventory. It’s complicated, over-engineered and there is a lack of the appropriate skills needed which is pushing the prices and wait times up for all landlords.

“We believe there is an opportunity for agents to connect with landlords and help them through an assessment of their current stock and strategy. We are seeing an uplift of homes for sale by landlord and also by helping to secure the right replacement homes agents can become ingrained within the portfolio. Propalt has a tool that can help you see which landlords have the most properties that are D and below and connect with the landlord that owns them directly from their platform.”