Energy certificate - to become the most important document?

https://euroweeklynews.com/2025/08/2...ricks-by-2030/

Mine's a D so it'll be okay even from 2033 but after that...... no idea.

There's government support for renovating your building:

Ayudas europeas para la rehabilitación de edificios residenciales y viviendas

Solar panels make a huge difference to the EPC rating. Ours was C and the panels put it up to the top end of A. You can still get 60% of the cost back against your income tax bill.

If this is EU wide, then parts of rural Italy and most of Greece will be unsellable ever.
At least the locals will have lots of property to choose from, all starting at €1 a village.

Our EPC is a G and there is no way it can be improved without a huge investment by the community.
There are 70 flats and, we might have double glazing, but the wind whistles round the aluminium frames in the winter and having the shutter cassettes built into the window frames means they are as good as a chocolate teapot.

I have an ex work mate in the Uk who is trying to decide which is best, replace his gas boiler and extend the central heating or get one of those heat pumps.
The company with the heat pumps is 'selling' the system on the improved rating of the EPC but it will only increase from D to C.
Cost for the gas boiler etc £14,000 cost for the heat pump etc £56,000 as he lives in a 300 year old house and they pump wont work until he has the whole building fully insulated.

If this is to be believed then many non compliant properties will already be unsellable because they will be unmortgaeable.

So glad I chose to buy and live in a park home which is not even a property in Spanish terms therefore not subject to any rules or regs. and can be freely bought or sold in 5 minutes without touching Spanish bureaucracy or taxes!

I have some more digging and it looks like this could all be going to happen

https://energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/e...y-directive_en

Italy will take whatever incentives are available from the EU and ignore the rest.

Yes more or less the same in the UK, mind you any park home is also unmortgageable (as far as i know)

Like many other EU "programs", while there is the declared objective of the legislation, in this case improving home efficiency and saving energy, there is the underlying objective, about which often little is said, and no matter the program, the underlying reason is often the same - to stimulate economic activity in poorer parts of Europe, to generate demand for products, and materials, which could potentially be coming from factories anywere in Europe, but the construction, installation, and operations of the program, and perhaps new local factories to manufacture products near to the new markets, are oftened skewed to areas with low income, unemployment and a depressed economy.

Hi
a similar directive is being implemented across the U.K., I would say a lot of older properties would be an uneconomic upgrade to get them to the required C for rental purposes. Consequently many landlords have sold up.

for home owners as yet there is no grade requirement to sell the property but the buyer will look at it and if it’s an E that would be factored into the purchase price and agents listing price. Mortgage companies are already moving away from poor Epc ratings, and it is going to be an issue going forward within the property market as a whole.

It is going to be interesting when they phase out gas boilers as a lot of U.K. properties cannot accommodate a ground source/air source heat pump, and many of us think the technology is not there yet anyway.

With regards to Spain, as other posters point out older properties could become unsellable without a lot of expenditure. I think Spain will find a way round it, by EPC inspectors offering higher grades for a cash fee! My experience of everything that involves a certificate is that it is run by corrupt operators. (Electrical Bolletin being my favourite gripe, being a U.K. sparky)

For older properties too, I remember they were introducing a need for an architects report (from the seller) on any property built before a certain date, this was on a rolling basis, ie every year the year was moved on, I suspect we are into the early 70s by now. (Someone may correct me on this) (Andalucia anyway)

We live in changing times where old sureties are not so sure any more……

regards
Al

I would guess in Spain many old village properties it would be impossible to bring them up to these new standards, so what happens do they demolition them and build whole new villages?

I've seen many old properties which are just a shell with the roof fallen in advertised as being exempt from an energy rating. And if the roof hasn't fallen in it can be made to fall in...

Hi
in the U.K. listed buildings are exempt so I assume very old historic buildings in Spain will be the same. The problem properties are the ones in the middle- from 1930 to 1980 (in Spain)

regards
Al

Nope, we looked at a house in the town next to the village we moved to that was built in 1837, it is and still is just a house, no 'special' rules etc, as we wanted a Spanish house to refurb to make a B&B.
We ended up not doing that and seeing as Covid happened a couple of years later, lucky for us. We have a flat that was built in 2004/5 and has a G for its classification.
I reckon maybe 80% or more of the buildings from the 20th century to maybe 2015 will fail to make any decent improvement without spending far more than they will ever recoup (the flat we are in has only recently got back to the sales value it had when new in 2004 after the last crash).

I cant change the windows or add insulation to the outside unless the other 70 flats decide to do the same. Yes I can insulate the insides, install low wattage under floor heating and maybe add another layer of glass inside the inadequate double glazing we have now.
This is a sad reality for us and almost everyone else who lives in blocks of flats.

Its also going to impact the rental market as the EPC rating will prevent places like ours to be rented out, long term or even short term. Meaning they will remain empty and the threat of squatters will increase.
The housing market here is a nightmare anyway if you are a normal person (thats anyone who is not selling up in another richer country and moving here).
There are zero 'affordable' housing schemes in our area, the cheapest new property is a 2 bed flat at around €280,000 how does someone on about €1,000 a month afford that???
Our flats are the only ones around that locals (our new neighbours are Argentinian and a very nice family) and they just about managed to get a mortgage on a flat at €140,000

All this will do is push house sales into the back room of a bar, where you have the choice to buy a flat, some drugs or pirated movies. And nudge nudge wink wink, anything else they can think of like dodgy Firesticks.