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Climate change is one of the most significant challenges of our time. The existing housing stock is a crucial component in achieving international and national climate change targets through energy efficiency improvements. The private rental sector incorporates some of the worst performing housing. To address this, the UK has implemented the minimum energy efficiency standard, based on the energy performance certificate rating. However, the energy performance certificate has a number of criticisms in the UK and across the EU. This viewpoints paper discusses the primary criticisms of the EPC and whether these undermine the minimum energy efficiency standard.

This viewpoint paper draws on the recent work across academic, government and professional literature to develop a critique of the energy performance certificate and its underlying methodology as a basis on which to form the minimum energy efficiency standard.

The paper concludes that based on the current form of the energy performance certificate in the UK, the minimum energy efficiency standard is likely to unfairly advantage some landlords and penalise others. This has implications for landlords, tenants and the wider housing stock.

This paper presents a discussion of the new minimum energy efficiency standard based on the limitations of the energy performance certificate. It has implications for policymakers, researchers and practitioners in the private rental sector.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between energy performance and property sale price in the Belfast housing market. How energy efficiency is contributes to sale price and thus appraisal value is of growing concern. The obligatory measurement of energy efficiency in private dwellings seeks to encourage improvements in energy performance. This may be capitalised into property value and may stimulate demand for energy-efficient buildings. However, the relationship between energy performance and property value remains nebulous, complex and under-researched – in part due to data limitations.

Using a hedonic pricing specification, this paper measures the effect of energy performance certificates (EPCs) on residential property value. It examines the relationship between 3,797 residential sales transactions across the Belfast housing market, showing the percentage effect on property value with respect to energy performance.

The results indicate a small but positive relationship between better energy performance and higher selling prices. Nonetheless, the findings point towards strong preference, demand tastes and a complex intra-relationship between EPCs and their capitalisation into property value. Pertinently, the findings point towards any energy-efficient-related price effect affect to be marginal alongside more “quality”-based market behaviours.

Analogous with other studies, data deficiencies and a lack of incorporating price determining variables (missing determinants) such as heating type and glazing type introduces omitted variable bias and endogeneity problems within the model structure.

This paper contributes to emerging literature and policy debate surrounding the measurement and implementation of energy-efficiency certification through a greater understanding of energy performance characteristics in determining property value.

Using a unique data set, the purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis that tenants pay increased accommodation costs for space in energy efficient office property.

The authors obtain lease contracts for office space in central Sydney, Australia. Empirical data on annual gross face rent and contract terms from each lease are combined with building characteristics and measured energy performance at the time of lease. Hedonic regression isolates the effect of energy performance on gross face rent.

No significant price differentials emerged as a function of energy performance, leading to a conclusion that tenants are not willing to pay for energy efficiency. Six factors – tenancy floor level, submarket location, proximity to transit, market fixed effects, building quality specification and, surprisingly, outgoings liability – consistently explain over 85 per cent of gross face rent prices in Sydney.

Rent premiums from an asset owner's perspective could emerge as a result of occupancy premiums, market timing or agent bias combined with statistically insignificant rental price differentials.

Tenants are likely indifferent to energy costs because the paper demonstrates that energy efficiency lacks financial salience and legal obligation in Sydney. This means that split incentives between owner and tenant are not a substantial barrier to energy efficiency investment in this market.

This study is the first to thoroughly examine energy efficiency rent price premiums at the tenancy scale in response to disclosure of measured performance. It also presents evidence against the common assumption that rent premiums at the asset scale reflect tenant willingness to pay for energy efficiency.

The purpose of this paper is to examine current trends in energy efficiency ratings and consider their likely impact on the Australian housing market.

The research is yet to be conducted; however a mixed method is proposed which is grounded on the theoretical model of consumer behaviour within housing markets. This model has been tested and demonstrated to be useful in predicting buyer behaviour.

Established theories of buyer perception indicate the introduction of energy efficiency rating systems will have an effect on the level of house prices.

This research is focussed on housing in Australia but also has implications for other global housing markets which are addressing sustainability.

Outputs of this research have implications for policy makers, real estate agents and valuers.

Increasing energy costs is likely to restructure the way housing markets operate with regard to sustainability and energy efficiency rating systems and also how they are understood.

This research will be in the Australian context utilising international modeling. As mandatory energy efficiency ratings have not been introduced, this research will be original.

The research investigates valuers' understanding of the value of sustainability in property and its' consideration in valuation practice in Australia. This paper explores valuers' perceptions of the relationships between sustainability and market values, sustainability and valuation variables, and the value influence of industry sustainability certification schemes. Further, this paper tracks prevalence of certified buildings in Australian commercial markets and the evolution of valuers' knowledge of sustainability certifications used in Australia.

This paper reports on the next rendition of a longitudinal study examining valuers’ practice in Australia. This research explores the evolution of Australian valuers' perception and knowledge of sustainability in valuation practice. The survey data has been periodically collected from practising valuers from 2007 to 2021. The survey questions investigate valuers' knowledge development, understanding, reporting and consideration of the relationship between sustainability and market value.

The results have identified the evolution of the influence of normative research on valuers' perceptions of the relationship between sustainability and value; with a clearer understanding emerging over time of where the value relationships are identified in valuation variables. Greater alignment between empirical Australian studies and valuers' perceptions of the influence of sustainability ratings on value, demonstrate the value connection for higher rated buildings under NABERS (energy rating) and Green Star. Whilst only 41% of the study's participants are including sustainability in their valuation reports, they include a higher level of commentary on building descriptions and initiatives, building ratings, and reporting of owner and tenant objectives, than in previous studies. Knowledge development relating to sustainability certification tool, NABERS was identified. This is likely linked to the introduction of mandatory disclosure legislation. This has also led to increased awareness and valuers' knowledge of the differences between the two key rating tools used in Australia.

The research has several limitations: firstly, recruitment of valuers and the number of valuers' responses has varied over time; secondly, due to collection methods respondents have a greater likelihood of having an interest in and knowledge of sustainability creating potential for positive bias; thirdly, respondents may have responded to the survey in different years, but due to anonymity there has been no ability to track this. The results provide insights into the Australian valuation profession but may not be fully representative of the profession overall in Australia.

The broader agenda of net zero, climate change, mitigation and carbon requirements, whether driven by market forces or government legislation, are generating changes in property markets as investors' reconsider their positions and model the implications of carbon emissions on their bottom lines. Introductions of policy and legislation over time in the Australian context have led to changes in valuation practice and increasing consideration of energy efficiency and ratings in the valuation of assets. However, further guidance and research still is required in Australia to assist in the knowledge development of valuers, and their ability to consider the emerging effects of sustainability, net zero and other market driven objectives including legislation, and how these may affect or influence their evaluation of market evidence and thus property values.

The research has tracked valuers' understanding, knowledge, and consideration of sustainability and energy efficiency in valuation practice since 2007. In that time the research has found that, as the market has evolved and more rated buildings are built (or retrofitted), so too has valuers' knowledge and consideration in valuation practices evolved. Valuers are more engaged with industry rating tools such as NABERS. This suggests that the Australian mandatory disclosure policies have contributed to changes in the market, which are then interpreted by valuers and reflected in their perceptions and consideration of energy ratings in valuation practice.

Buildings contribute significantly to CO₂ production. They are also subject to considerable taxation based on value. Analysis shows that while similar attributes contribute to both value and CO₂ production, there is only a loose relationship between the two. If we wish to use taxation to affect policy change (drive energy efficiency behaviour), we are unlikely to achieve this using only the current tax base (value), or by increasing the tax take off this current tax base (unlike extra taxation of cigarettes to discourage smoking, for example). Taxation of buildings on the basis of energy efficiency is hampered by the lack of current evidence of performance. This paper aims to model the now-obligatory (at sale or letting) energy performance certificate (EPC) data to derive an acceptable appraisal model (marked to market, being the EPC scores) and deploys this to the entire population of properties. This provides an alternative tax base with which to model the effects of a tax base switch to energy efficiency and to understand the tax incidence effects of such a policy.

The research uses a multiplicative hedonic approach to model energy efficiency utilising EPC holding properties in a UK jurisdiction [Northern Ireland (NI)] as the sample. This model is then used to estimate discrete energy assessments for each property in the wider population, using attributes held in the domestic rating (property tax) database for NI (700,000+ properties). This produces a robust estimate of the EPC for every property in its current condition and its cost-effective improved condition. This energy assessment based tax base is further used to estimate a new millage rate and property tax bill (green property tax) which is compared against the existing property tax based on value to allow tax incidence changes to be analysed.

The findings show that such a policy would significantly redistribute the tax burden and would have a variety of expected and some unexpected effects. The results indicate that while assessing the energy performance of houses can be a complex process involving many parameters, much of the explanatory power can be achieved via a relatively small number of input variables, often already held by property tax jurisdictions. This offers the opportunity for useful housing stock modelling – such as the savings possible from power switching. The research also identifies that whilst urban areas display the expected “heat island” effect in terms of energy consumption, urban properties are on average more efficient than suburban/rural properties. This facilitates spatial targeting of policy messages and initiatives.

Analogous with other studies, data deficiencies introduce the risk of omitted variable bias. Modelling of the energy efficiency in the sample is limited to property attributes that are available for the wider population of properties. While this limits the modelling exercise, it is a perennial issue facing mass appraisal worldwide (where knowledge of the transacted sample attributes generally exceeds knowledge of the unsold properties). That said, the research demonstrates the benefits of sharing data and improving knowledge of the housing stock, as taxation databases would be stronger, augmented with EPC-derived property attributes for example.

The EPC lead in time for wide residential coverage is likely to be considerable. The paper contributes to emerging literature and policy debate surrounding the effect, performance measurement and implementation of energy efficiency certification, through a greater understanding of the sectorial and geographical dispersion of energy efficiency. It provides high level research to help guide policy and decision-making, identifying key locales where there is more of a physical problem and locations where there is more to gain in terms of targeting energy improvement and/or encouraging behavioural change. The paper also allows a glimpse of the implications of a change towards a taxation regime based on energy efficiency, which contributes to the debate surrounding the “greening” of property based taxes.

A number of studies have investigated the relationship between energy performance certificates (EPCs) and house prices. A majority of studies have tended to model energy performance pricing effects within a traditional hedonic conditional mean estimate model. There has been limited analysis that has accounted for the relationship between EPCs and the effects across the pricing distribution. Moreover, there has been limited research examining the “standard cost improvements EPC score”, or “potential score”. Therefore, this paper aims to quantify and measure the dynamic effects of EPCs on house prices across the price spectrum and account for standardised cost-effective retrofit improvements.

Existing EPC studies produce one coefficient for the entirety of the pricing distribution, culminating in a single marginal implicit price effect. The approach within this study applies a quantile regression approach to empirically estimate how quantiles of house prices respond differently to unitary changes in the proximal effects of EPCs and structural property characteristics across the conditional distribution of house prices. Using a data set of 1,476 achieved transaction prices, the quantile regression models apply both assessed EPC score and bands and further examine the potential EPC rating for improved energy performance based on an average energy cost improvement.

The findings show that EPCs are valued differently across the quantiles and that conditional quantiles are asymmetrical. Only property prices in the upper quantiles of the price distribution show significant capitalisation effects with energy performance, and only properties with higher EPC scores display positive significant effects at the higher end of the price distribution. There are also brown discount effects evident for lower-rated properties within F- and G-rated EPC properties at the higher end of the pricing distribution. Moreover, the potential energy efficiency rating (score) also shows increased effects with sales prices and appears to minimise any brown discount effects. The findings imply that energy performance is a complex feature that is not easily “averaged” for valuation effect purposes.

While numerous studies have investigated the pricing effects of EPCs, they have tended to provide a single estimate to determine the relationship with price. This paper extends the traditional analytical insights beyond the conditional mean estimate by examining the quantiles of the relationship between EPCs and house prices to enhance the understanding of this esoteric and complex issue. In addition, this research applies the assessed energy efficiency potential to establish whether effective cost improvements enhance the relationship with sales price and capitalisation effects.

The dearth of green standards (GS) in sub-Saharan Africa is alarming and the green cost premiums (GCP) in seeking certification in emerging markets are scanty. This paper studied the Building Energy-Efficiency Code of Nigeria (BEEC) and estimated the potential GCPs associated with the various energy-efficiency ratings.

The study retrofitted 150 conventional residential bungalow and maisonette buildings using BEEC's energy-efficiency interventions and performed analytical estimating of the retrofitted designs. The mean cost premium associated with each energy-efficiency intervention is presented as well as their financial benefits and payback periods. The benefits are achievable financial-savings due to a reduction in energy consumption and savings in electricity payment estimated from the average energy demands of each building. An independent t-test was further conducted to determine the cost differential between energy-efficient design (ED) and conventional design over a five-year period.

The potential GCPs and their payback periods are actually less than feared. The study showed that less than 5% and 21% extra funding would be required to achieve 1 to 4-Star and 5-Star energy-efficiency ratings involving passive design interventions and photovoltaic systems. Passive and active design interventions produced a financial savings of $8.08/m² in electricity payment and $2.84/m² per annum in energy consumption reduction. The financial-savings ($10.92/m²) was objective to pay-off the GCPs in less than four years. The independent t-test analysis showed the cost of ED is more economical after four years into the project lifecycle.

The research provides cost benchmarks for navigating cost planning and budgetary decisions during ED implementation and births a departure point for advancing energy-efficient construction in developing markets from the rational economic decision perspective.

The role of energy efficiency and particularly energy performance certificates (EPCs) has emerged as a topical and important aspect of real estate markets. Various studies have been carried out investigating the perceived capitalisation effects of energy efficiency on property prices. There, however, remains divergence of opinion whether the capitalisation effect is truly in existence with extant research showing differing magnitudes of effects, if any. To date, no study (that the authors are aware of) has investigated the nature of the transition between EPC bands and price effects. The purpose of this study is to add to the research of the energy efficiency of housing to examine the nature of the likelihood of property characteristics being associated with higher EPC scores and value.

This research undertakes a suite of methodological tests to investigate the more latent relationships between EPC bands and pricing behaviour using 3,797 achieved sales prices within the Belfast housing market. Binary logit regression models are specified in conjunction with a Polytomous Universal Model to examine the likelihood of EPC bands falling within a particular property type and the likelihood of any pricing effects.

The findings show the differing property types to comprise very distinct and complex relationships in terms of price and EPC banding. The binary logit model estimations for both terrace properties and apartments reveal an increased likelihood to obtain higher EPC scores, with the semi-detached sector displaying a “mixed effect” with detached property revealing decreased probability of having superior energy performance and decreased likelihood of having poorer energy performance. The ordinal model estimations indicate that sales price comprises no relationship with energy performance, inferring that there is no increased probability of an increase in sales price with higher EPC rating.

This research offers new insights and focus on achieving a better understanding of the nexus between energy performance and property characteristics using alternative modelling approaches. This provides more exploratory insights into the complex relationships and offers awareness for policy discourse in terms of targeting properties which will tend to be poorer in energy efficiency.

Energy saving of buildings is a big issue because building energy occupies about 25% of national energy. To reduce building energy, many countries try to control building energy by laws, such as building energy regulations. This study has two objectives. The first is to evaluate building energy efficiency rate of a specific building using annual energy analysis software based on BIM tools. The second objective is to reduce building energy usage adopting passive and active architectural strategies under the Korean building energy rating regulation. A newly constructed public library building was selected as energy simulation base model, and a few active and passive energy saving strategies were applied to the same building. Energy plus was adopted as a simulation tool. The calculated annual source energy usage per area for alt model was 210.7 kWh/m² yr, and the value for base model was 355 kWh/m² yr. The building energy efficiency rate for alt model is the first class under Korean building energy rating regulation.