Efficient houses sell for more

A STUDY by a notaires’ group has found that house values can vary by nearly 30% depending on the DPE energy efficiency label that has been awarded after diagnostic tests.

Since 2006 property sales adverts have had to include details of the energy consumption using A to G labels for good to poor performance.
Taking information from selling prices across France, the study found that the most common label for the Diagnostic de Performance Energétique was D and that this was consistent throughout the country.

This D label gave the researchers from the Conseil National du Notariat’s Dinamic association a base level average for comparing sales prices for older properties in different regions. It revealed a link between selling price and the energy label, with the results varying depending on geographical location.

The Ile-de-France was not included because of the specific nature of the market in and near Paris.

The energy/price effect was most pronounced in the south-west, where houses holding a G label sold for 28% less than similar properties in D category in the same area while houses with an A label sold for 26% more.

Even properties with C and E labels drew different sale prices, with C houses selling for 15% more than average and E-labelled houses selling for 12% less.

East of Ile-de-France, house-buyers in a region from the Ardennes down to Nièvre and Côte d’Or, would pay just 10% less for an F-label house, while those further north in Nord-Pas-de-Calais across to Calvados and Orne would pay 12% more for C-label house than one with a D.

In Brittany, houses on the AB label could command prices that were as much as 26% higher than what would be paid for a D-label house.