Landlords with smaller rental properties or flats may already be sitting closer to the 2030 energy efficiency threshold than the industry alarm around EPC reform has led them to believe.
Property management specialist Rushbrook & Rathbone found that homes with two or three habitable rooms achieved the highest average EPC score, at 70.2.
That places them within the current C banding of 69 to 80.
Analysis of 589,549 EPC certificates issued this year shows flats outperform all other property types, with an average score of 72.8.
By comparison, houses average 70.0, maisonettes 70.1 and bungalows 67.6.
Landlords worry about EPC
The firm's managing director, Roma Sharma, said: "There has understandably been a great deal of concern amongst landlords regarding proposed EPC requirements and the potential cost of bringing properties up to standard.
"However, what this data suggests is that many landlords may already be in a far stronger position than they expect, particularly those with smaller rental homes or flats, which naturally tend to perform better from an energy efficiency perspective."
Landlords must invest
She added: "Over recent years, many landlords have already invested in improvements such as upgraded heating systems, insulation, glazing and lighting, often as part of wider refurbishment and maintenance programmes.
"That said, compliance is rarely something that can simply be dealt with once and then forgotten about.
"Standards, legislation and assessment methodologies continue to evolve, particularly as the private rented sector becomes more regulated."
Larger properties perform less well, with homes containing more than nine habitable rooms averaging 63.0, putting them firmly in EPC band D.
Privately rented homes also average 68.9, ahead of owner-occupied properties at 68.1, though both remain just below the C band threshold.
Most homes are below EPC C
Separate research covering nearly 15.6 million domestic EPC certificates lodged across 346 local authorities in England and Wales over the past decade found that close to half of all assessed homes currently fall below the C rating.
The gap between the best and worst-performing local authority areas spans 64 percentage points, with Tower Hamlets at the top at 79.75% of homes rated C or above, and the Isles of Scilly at the bottom at just 15.21%.
Daniel Southern, the managing director at Cut Plastic Sheeting, whose firm conducted the research, said: "The scale of the energy efficiency challenge across England and Wales is stark.
"With nearly half of all assessed homes currently falling below the C rating that landlords are now required to meet by October 2030, there is a significant amount of work to do, and the gap between the best and worst-performing areas is striking."
Landlords need to check EPC criteria
The managing director of Accommodation for Students, Simon Thompson, said: "Whether a landlord needs to act before 2030 depends heavily on what they own and where.
"Flats and compact homes are performing well on average since the data suggests you may already be compliant or close to it."
He added: "Larger houses, particularly in rural locations, face a steeper climb.
"Crucially, hitting the standard once is not enough, the EPC assessment criteria are evolving, so ongoing maintenance and investment matter just as much as the initial rating."
