The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors ( RICS ) have been instructed by the Government to adopt a new and more realistic stance towards homes that feature significant energy and cost saving technology. Such energy efficient measures as solid wall insulation, photovoltaic solar panels and air and ground source heat pumps along with wind turbines.

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Until recently such measures had no real direct impact upon the value of a property in direct opposition to every other type of product or asset which had energy saving and lower running costs reflected in  higher asking prices. Items such as diesel and electric cars cost around 10% to 20% more to buy than a petrol equivalent and similarly an A+ rated boiler costs more than a B rated boiler etc etc .

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The logic of something being more valuable as it has lower running costs is clear and is easy to both explain and to be understood. However, this has not been the case for houses to any recognisable degree even after the introduction of Energy Performance Certificates for homes being sold in the last few years. To redress this imbalance and to encourage more people to invest in green technology the Government has ordered the R.I.C.S to re-evaluate their procedures and methods and to reflect the lower running costs and lower maintenance costs in a houses’s market value.

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This should lead to a significant increase in the uptake for solid wall insulation and other worthy green technologies as the homeowner will be able to benefit from ever lower heating bills but also if they do decide to sell up they know the investment they made into their property will be recouped in a higher asking price.

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It will be interesting to see how much of an increase the R.I.C.S come up with but it should be reasonable to assume at least a 5% premium for properties with lower running costs. After all if there are two semis and one has no exterior decorating required with annual heating bills of £600 whilst the other needs painting every 5 years and costs £1200 per year to heat it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out which house will fetch a higher price when sold.

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If you would like to know more about having your solid walls externally insulated and what grants are available please give us a call on

08456 345 866

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