£130.68 billions in commercial property at risk from MEES
Leading energy consultant Arbnco has revealed that 20% of the 3,620 commercial properties it has surveyed have fallen into a lower EPC category when tested against the latest EPC standards. Extrapolated to the whole UK commercial market, that puts over £130 billions of commercial property at risk of being unlettable due to low EPC ratings.
More than 10% of all the E-rated properties (which is the minimum standard required under MEES legislation) dropped to an F or even a G on the EPC scale. This means that they fall into the government’s category of ‘sub-standard’.
One of the most surprising elements of this research is that all of the properties had their most recent EPC accreditation less than 5 years ago and are considered to be well-managed properties.
Simon West, director and co-founder of Arbnco, says: “MEES has been on the horizon for a long time now, but the statistics from our re-simulation tell us that some commercial real estate investors and subsequent stakeholders are still not heeding the warning.
“For real estate investors with a large number of properties in their portfolio, the fact that almost 20% of buildings on our platform are performing worse than previously should come as a stark warning.”
Arbnco launched its estates platform to the real estate investor market in January 2018. It enables investors to make quicker and better decisions on the energy efficiency of their properties and ensure asset values are protected.
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