What Shade of Green is Your Commercial Property?
It has been four months since Energy Performance Certificate’s (EPC’s) began to be phased into the commercial property market and only three months until they will become compulsory for all commercial property over 50m2 being sold, let or built. So what exactly do they mean for a commercial property owner?
What will the EPC tell me?
After an Energy Assessor has made an assessment of the property, the details are loaded into government-approved software which will produce the EPC for the property. This certificate will:
· Provide general information about the energy efficiency and carbon emissions of the building;
· Give a rating on a standardised scale of A to G (A being the best) of how energy efficient the property is. This allows the property to be accurately compared to similar buildings;
· Make recommendations about how the property’s energy efficiency, and therefore it’s rating, could be improved, as well as giving a realistic indication of what grading the property could achieve if the recommendations are put in place.
What Can I Do To Improve My Properties’ Energy Efficiency?
Whether your reasons for being interested in the results of the required survey are based on an environmental concern and wanting to “go green”, or the desire to save money on the buildings’ running cost during the increase in fuel prices the fact is there are some very simple measures you can take to improve the energy efficiency of your office space, retail premises or industrial unit.
· Reduce waste and recycle what waste you do have: reuse paper; cancel junk mail and think before you print.
· Use energy efficiently: turn the heating off rather than just opening a window; turn lights off when they are not needed; use energy efficient light bulbs; put electrical equipment (e.g. water cooler) on a timer so it turns off at the end of the day, and fit draught excluders on doors and windows.
· Use water efficiently: ensure water appliances are efficient and fix leaking taps etc.
How Will the EPC’s affect the Marketing of My Commercial Property?
Many articles have been published claiming the positive and negative effects EPC’s could have on the marketability of commercial properties in relation to the perceived costs of high or low energy efficient properties.
The Manchester Evening News carried a story suggesting that although the “government wants to encourage tenants to move into industrial and commercial buildings which are more environmentally friendly… the introduction of EPC’s may well lead to the opposite happening over the long term, by making less environmentally friendly buildings less expensive and therefore more popular”. (Read the full article here.) This implies that owners of commercial property with a good energy efficiency rating could find it more difficult to market their property and find occupiers due to the perceived higher cost compared to lower efficiency properties. However, we would suggest that this higher initial cost will soon be recouped as the running and maintenance costs will be reduced in the longer term, whereas the opposite would be true of a less energy efficient property where the initial outlay could be less but the long term costs are likely to be higher as energy is wasted. If an occupier thinks for the long term they are likely to be put off by this and choose the more energy efficient property instead.
In addition to this, owners of industrial units, offices and retail space which are eligible to have an EPC are entitled to claim tax breaks against the cost of installing systems which will help to make the property more energy efficient. This comes under a new government incentive to encourage more energy efficiency amongst commercial property as well as to help property agents and owners “stay ahead of the game” (read the full article here) and make the marketing of their property easier based on the energy rating they receive.
Marketing commercial property will now require additional focus on the energy performance rating it holds and the benefits this will bring to the occupier. To find out more information about the energy efficiency of the commercial properties listed on NovaLoca and to find out how to get your commercial property listed, contact the customer services team on 01767 313380.
