* seasonally adjusted

Commenting on the figures Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said:

“The price of a typical UK property rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.5% month-on-month (m/m) in May, following a 1.1% increase in April. The smoother 3 month on 3 month rate of increase rose from 1.1% in April to 1.7%, as February’s fall in house prices dropped out of the most recent three month average. The annual rate of house price inflation dropped from 10.5% to 9.8%, which reflects the weaker pace of increase in May 2010 relative to May 2009. Since reaching a trough in February 2009 – following a drop of 19.3% from their October 2007 peak – house prices have risen by 12.2% and are now just 9.5% below the October 2007 peak.

“Housing market conditions remain characterised by thin transaction volumes and a relative scarcity of properties for sale, despite a slow return of more sellers in recent months. The current supply-demand balance on the market is still consistent with relatively stable to modestly upward trending prices.”

Impact of capital gains tax changes on house prices depends on timing of implementation

“The coalition agreement between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats contains plans to increase the rate of capital gains tax (CGT) charged on the disposal of non-business assets, potentially including second homes and buy-to-let investment properties. Currently the CGT rate on such assets is 18%, and the coalition plans are to raise the rate to a level “similar or close to those applied to income.” Precise details, however, will not be known until the Emergency Budget announcement on 22 June.

“With regard to what the short-term impact will be on the housing market and house prices, the key question is around the timing and implementation of any CGT increase. If there is a significant time lag between the announcement of the increase and its actual implementation, then some second home owners and buy-to-let landlords may decide to sell in advance of the higher rate being introduced. Such a development could lead the supply-demand balance to shift more in favour of buyers and relieve the current upward pressure on house prices. However, it is difficult to know with any precision how many people would bring forward a decision to sell.

“The incentive to try to beat the higher tax rate is most pressing for those who have owned their properties for a relatively long period of time and therefore have relatively large unrealised gains. Conversely, those who bought their second homes or investment property within the last five years have little incentive to sell early in order to beat the tax change. House prices have only risen back to their mid-2006 level and the first £10,100 of capital gains is currently tax free.

“If the new rate comes into effect immediately on 22 June, then supply conditions are unlikely to be affected materially as any potential sellers would not have time to react.

“There are some examples of where tax changes have had a significant short-term impact on the housing market. Most prominent was the March 1988 announcement to end double Mortgage Interest Relief At Source (MIRAS) for cohabiting couples. The implementation of the tax change was postponed until August of that year, which prompted a rush of buyers to try to beat the deadline. The result was a temporary surge in property values, with house prices increasing by 18% between Q1 1988 and Q3 1988 alone.

“However, the most recent change in CGT rates announced in the 2007 Pre-Budget Report did not have any discernable impact on the supply of property on the market. At the time, the existing CGT rates of 24-40% – depending on taper relief and income status – were cut to a flat rate of 18%. New instructions to sell property remained very low even after the tax changes were introduced, although this may also have been due to the very weak market conditions prevailing at the time.”

Monthly UK House Price Statistics

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* seasonally adjusted

Commenting on the figures Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said:

The price of a typical UK property rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.0% month-on-month (m/m) in April, leaving house prices 10.5% higher than a year earlier. Over the lifetime of the last Parliament (May 2005 to April 2010), house prices have risen by 6.7%. This compares to a 13.5% increase in the consumer price index, the official target measure of inflation.

April’s figures show the first double-digit annual growth in UK house prices since June 2007. The year-on-year rate in this month’s figures, however, received an additional boost from the fact that April 2009 was one of the weaker months last year. Given the very strong performance of house prices from May 2009 onwards, it will take monthly increases in excess of 1% for the annual rate of inflation to be maintained in double digits going forward. The smoother three month on three month rate of inflation edged down further from 1.5% in March to 1.1% in April, which primarily reflects the impact of February’s 1.0% decline in house prices. April’s figures leave UK house prices exactly 10% below the October 2007 peak.

For further information please see  April 2010 report (PDF 64KB).

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According to Iranzo, the banks are sitting on 100,000 of Spain’s 700,000 unsold new homes, which they will now have to dump on the market. Thanks to new rules from the Bank of Spain forcing banks to increase their provisions on unsold properties, which took effect in January, Iranzo also expects the banks to drop their prices in search of sales. He pointed out that banks need to improve their balance sheets by selling property, though it is unclear how selling property at a loss will help do that.

What green shoots?

There has been some talk recently in the mainstream Spanish media about an incipient recovery in the housing market, but according to Iranzo the housing sector will get “quite a lot worse” this year, thanks to the recession and increasing unemployment. “The outlook doesn’t favour the house purchases,” remarked Iranzo. He warned that prices still have room to fall, and that interest rates will go up towards the end of the year, putting further pressure on prices.

“Never again”

A glut of newly-built properties isn’t the only problem the market is having to deal with. Demand has also retrenched massively, and may not pick up until 2012 or 2013, says Iranzo.

When does he expect demand to return to the boom levels of 700,000 homes a year? “Never again,” says Iranzo, who expects demand to stabilise around 450,000 homes per year in 2012.

It is important to note that Iranzo is basically talking about the market for primary housing in and around Spanish cities, not holiday homes on the coast. Some experts expect the quality holiday home market to recover much quicker, thanks to supply limits and internationally diversified demand.

Link to original article and more Spanish property information

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24 February 2010

Conference time: 0845hrs – 1630hrs

Background

The CML compile and publish a range of statistics on the UK housing and mortgage markets including key data on mortgage lending, arrears and possessions and market segments such as buy-to-let. This unparalleled knowledge and insight into the important role housing plays in the economy is the basis on which this conference programme is built.

The detailed content will help all organisations, not just lenders, operating within the world of housing. The content discussed will be crucial to understanding current and future housing market conditions.

Chaired by Sue Anderson, head of external affairs, Council of Mortgage Lenders

Expert speakers will include:

• Michael Coogan, Director General, Council of Mortgage Lenders
• Rt. Hon John Healey MP, Minister for Housing and Planning
• Peter Williams, housing consultant and Chairman, IMLA
• Steven Hall, director, KPMG
• Bob Pannell, head of research, Council of Mortgage Lenders
• John Stewart, director of economic affairs, Home Builders Federation
• Rob Thomas, senior policy adviser, Council of Mortgage Lenders

Delegates currently booked on include:

• Technical director, Allied Surveyors
• Head of sales, Halifax Intermediaries
• Head of product delivery, HBOS plc
• Team leader, housing regeneration and third sector team, HM Treasury
• Business project manager, Legal and General Assurance Society

Cost:

£275 for members (VAT exempt)
£325 for non-members (VAT exempt)

Our event fees remain highly competitive with prices for members and associates not having increased since January 2007

Location:

The Westbury Hotel, Bond Street, Mayfair, London, W1S 2YF

This event is open to press

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The latest Bank of England mortgage data published today confirms the likelihood that there may have been a “bunching” of house purchase transactions in December to beat the stamp duty concession deadline.The gross lending total of £13.4 bn in December 2009 was in line with the CML’s estimate (£13.5 bn) and seems to confirm the CML’s view that much activity was “rushed through” to beat the stamp duty deadline. Gross lending totalled £143.5 bn in 2009.

Net lending remains up from the near stagnation in the middle of the year. For 2009 as a whole net lending totalled £11.5 bn. This was the lowest level on record (back to 1987), but higher than the CML forecast of £8 bn. It was largely driven by the relative strength of house purchase activity, which picked up over the latter part of the year, and weak levels of repayments. The CML sees little if any evidence that households, in aggregate, are using low interest rates to pay down mortgage debt more quickly.

CML economist Paul Samter said:

“These figures confirm that the mortgage market ended 2009 in much better shape than it started, but it still looks like a slow haul back to meaningful levels of activity. It should be no surprise if January and February this year appear particularly slow, if we are correct in our view that many buyers rushed to beat the stamp duty concession deadline in December.”

Notes to editors

1. The December lending data is available from the Bank of England website.

Contact details

Name: Sue Anderson

Tel: 020 7438 8924

Email: sue.anderson@cml.org.uk

Name: Bernard Clarke

Tel: 020 7438 8923

Email: bernard.clarke@cml.org.uk

Name: Jayne Chichester

Tel: 020 7438 8922

Email: jayne.chichester@cml.org.uk

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Surveyors in the West Midlands, East Midlands, Wales and Scotland predict that the end of the holiday will have a “detrimental effect” in areas that are yet to see a recovery from the recession, and widely expect to see a drop in market activity when the threshold reverts back to its previous ways. The temporary stamp duty holiday was implemented in September 2008 and will finish at the end of the year.

The 1% tax will be reintroduced for properties sold over £125,000 compared with the £175,000 currently in operation, with The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors calling for the tax to be restructured. The Council of Mortgage Lenders calculates that 132,500 houses that were bought funded with a mortgage had escaped paying stamp duty in the past year.

“This is one of those situations where we will have to wait and see what the long term affects are to the housing market, but there can be no doubt that the stamp duty holiday has been a huge help to various regions in the UK,” says Laurence Smith of Decision Homebuyers. “People looking to sell a house quick or who are looking to buy a property are now working under different market conditions, and will have to cater their budgets accordingly as a result.”

To find out more about Decision Homebuyers and their services:
Please call 08456 341 456
or visit: http://www.decisionhomebuyers.co.uk/

About Decision Homebuyers:
Established in 2006 and specialising in fast property purchase, Decision Homebuyers are experts in their field. Decision Homebuyers can buy your house fast and guarantee to make cash offers on all types of residential and commercial property, no matter what the condition.

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Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 7.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate¹ of 6.54 million units in November from 6.09 million in October, and are 44.1 percent higher than the 4.54 million-unit pace in November 2008. Current sales remain at the highest level since February 2007 when they hit 6.55 million.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the rise was expected. “This clearly is a rush of first-time buyers not wanting to miss out on the tax credit, but there are many more potential buyers who can enter the market in the months ahead,” he said. “We expect a temporary sales drop while buying activity ramps up for another surge in the spring when buyers take advantage of the expanded tax credit, which hopefully will take us into a self-sustaining market in the second half of 2010. In all, 4.4 million households are expected to claim the tax credit before it expires and balance should be restored to the housing sector with inventories continuing to decline.”

An NAR practitioner survey² shows first-time buyers purchased 51 percent of homes in November, compared with an upwardly revised 50 percent of transactions in October.

According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage fell to 4.88 percent in November from 4.95 percent in October; the rate was 6.09 percent in November 2008. Last month’s mortgage interest rate was the second lowest on record after bottoming at 4.81 percent in April 2009.

NAR President Vicki Cox Golder, owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates in Tucson, Ariz., said conditions are optimal for buyers in the current market. “Inventories have steadily declined and are closer to balanced levels, which indicate home prices in many areas are either stabilizing or could soon stabilize and return to normal appreciation patterns,” she said. “This means buyers still have good choices but are purchasing near the bottom of the price cycle with historically low mortgage interest rates. Throw a tax credit on top and it really doesn’t get any better for buyers with secure jobs and long-term ownership plans.”

Total housing inventory at the end of November declined 1.3 percent to 3.52 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 6.5-month supply³ at the current sales pace, down from an 7.0-month supply in October.

Raw unsold inventory figures are 15.5 percent below a year ago. The last time there was a lower supply of homes on the market was April 2006 when it was at a 6.1-month supply.

“Nearly all markets experienced a solid sales gain from one year ago,” Yun said. “The only markets with measurably lower sales were in San Diego, Riverside, and Sacramento, where inventory shortages for lower priced homes are limiting sales.”

For the second month in a row, sales have risen in all price classes from a year earlier. Prior to October, the only consistent gains were in the lower price ranges.

The national median existing-home price⁴ for all housing types was $172,600 in November, which is 4.3 percent below November 2008. Distressed properties, which accounted for 33 percent of sales in November, continue to downwardly distort the median price because they generally sell at a discount relative to traditional homes in the same area.

Single-family home sales jumped 8.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.77 million in November from a level of 5.32 million in October, and are 42.1 percent above the pace of 4.06 million in November 2008. The median existing single-family home price was $171,900 in November, down 4.4 percent from a year ago.

Existing condominium and co-op sales in November were unchanged from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 770,000 in October, but are 60.1 percent above the 481,000-unit pace a year ago. The median existing condo price⁵ was $178,000 in November, which is 3.1 percent below November 2008.

Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast rose 6.6 percent to an annual level of 1.13 million in November, and are 52.7 percent higher than November 2008. The median price in the Northeast was $223,400, down 13.1 percent from a year ago.

Existing-home sales in the Midwest increased 8.4 percent in November to a pace of 1.55 million and are 53.5 percent above a year ago. The median price in the Midwest was $140,800, a decline of 0.4 percent from November 2008.

In the South, existing-home sales rose 4.8 percent to an annual level of 2.39 million in November and are 44.8 percent higher than a year ago. The median price in the South was $151,400, down 1.4 percent from November 2008.

Existing-home sales in the West increased 10.6 percent to an annual rate of 1.46 million in November and are 28.1 percent above November 2008. The median price in the West was $231,100, which is 4.1 percent below a year ago.

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

# # #

NOTE: NAR also reports monthly comparisons of existing single-family home sales and median prices for select metropolitan statistical areas, and is posted with other tables at: www.realtor.org/research/research/ehsdata. For information on areas not included in the report, please contact the local association of Realtors®.

¹The annual rate for a particular month represents what the total number of actual sales for a year would be if the relative pace for that month were maintained for 12 consecutive months. Seasonally adjusted annual rates are used in reporting monthly data to factor out seasonal variations in resale activity. For example, home sales volume is normally higher in the summer than in the winter, primarily because of differences in the weather and family buying patterns. However, seasonal factors cannot compensate for abnormal weather patterns.

Existing-home sales, which include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, are based on transaction closings. This differs from the U.S. Census Bureau’s series on new single-family home sales, which are based on contracts or the acceptance of a deposit. Because of these differences, it is not uncommon for each series to move in different directions in the same month. In addition, existing-home sales, which generally account for 85 to 90 percent of total home sales, are based on a much larger sample – more than 40 percent of multiple listing service data each month – and typically are not subject to large prior-month revisions.

Single-family data collection began monthly in 1968, while condo data collection began quarterly in 1981; the series were combined in 1999 when monthly collection of condo data began. Prior to this period, single-family homes accounted for more than nine out of 10 purchases. Historic comparisons for total home sales prior to 1999 are based on monthly single-family sales, combined with the corresponding quarterly sales rate for condos.

²First-time buyer and distressed sales data are from the Realtor® Confidence Index; prior month first-time buyer data was revised due to a computational coding issue after the questionnaire was updated to obtain more specific breakouts.

³Total inventory and month’s supply data are available back through 1999, while single-family inventory and month’s supply are available back to 1982.

⁴The only valid comparisons for median prices are with the same period a year earlier due to the seasonality in buying patterns. Month-to-month comparisons do not compensate for seasonal changes, especially for the timing of family buying patterns. Changes in the composition of sales can distort median price data. Year-ago median and mean prices sometimes are revised in an automated process if more data is received than was originally reported.

⁵Because there is a concentration of condos in high-cost metro areas, the national median condo price generally is higher than the median single-family price. In a given market area, condos typically cost less than single-family homes.

Existing-home sales for December will be released January 25. The next Pending Home Sales Index is scheduled for January 5; release times are 10 a.m. EST.

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LONDON, ENGLAND, December 02, 2009
Customers taking out Sainsbury’s Home Insurance qualify for Double Nectar points on their Sainsbury’s shopping for two years

Over the past year in order to save money, one in four people have cancelled or not renewed their home insurance. Sainsbury’s Home Insurance is warning people not to go without home insurance as it could have disastrous consequences leaving them in further financial dire straits. To help pay for their home insurance, Sainsbury’s Finance is urging people to spread the cost of cover over a year, something it does not charge customers for doing. However, its research reveals that 68% of policies do.

Ben Tyte, Sainsbury’s Home Insurance Manager, said:
“In the current economic environment many people are looking to dumb down on their insurance or do away with it completely in order to save money. However, this is a false economy because if disaster strikes they could be left in ruin. Rather than risk inadequate cover, they should shop around for better deals – it is possible to find quality cover at a competitive price – and find a policy that does not penalise them for paying on a monthly basis.”

However, when reviewing policies, Sainsbury’s home insurance warns that it is very important to look closely at the quality of cover being offered. For example, its research reveals that only 8% of home insurance policies offer unlimited buildings cover and only 12% offer a no claims discount of up to 30% or more. Furthermore, less than one in ten (8%) policies provide no claims discount protection. These are all features offered by Sainsbury’s Home Insurance.

Sainsbury’s shoppers are rewarded with double Nectar points on their shopping in store, online and in petrol filling stations for two years when taking out Sainsbury’s Home Insurance. For example, customers who spend GBP50 a week with Sainsbury’s and have Sainsbury’s Home Insurance as well as a Nectar card would receive GBP52 worth of Nectar points a year.

About Sainsbury’s Home Insurance:
As well as being competitively priced, the bank also offers an extensive range of cover and benefits. This includes:

Unlimited buildings cover
Unlike some home insurers, Sainsbury’s Bank does not apply charges for customers paying their premiums by direct debit
Maximum no-claims discount of up to 30%
No-claims discount protection
Cover for accidental damage – even by pets
Sainsbury’s provide a wide range of financial services including credit cards, loans, personal loans, savings account, pet insurance, life insurance, home insurance and car insurance, visit www.sainsburysbank.co.uk now to find out more

For further information, please contact:
Phil Anderson / Ian Morris
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
020 7282 1031/1037

Notes:
(1) Defaqto research commissioned by Sainsbury’s Finance, September 2009
(2) ABI, June 2009
(3) Dependent on the number of years you have remained claimed free
(4) Terms and conditions apply – additional premium required
Sainsbury’s Home Insurance is underwritten by St Andrews Insurance ltd.

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Martin Gahbauer

Commenting on the figures Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said:
“The monthly rate of house price inflation was unchanged in November at a seasonally adjusted 0.5%, leaving the average price of a typical property 2.7% higher than a year earlier.

At £162,764, the average house price is at a similar level to where it was in early 2006. The 3 month on 3 month rate of change – generally a smoother indicator of the near term trend – dropped to 2.8% from 3.5% in October and 3.8% in September.
This suggests that house prices are now rising at a more moderate pace than in the spring and summer months, when they experienced a very strong bounce from the early 2009 lows.

Labour market has held up better than expected but uncertainties remain.

“The outlook for the housing market remains crucially dependent on labour market conditions, and here recent developments have been somewhat more encouraging than might have been expected. With the UK experiencing its longest and deepest recession since WWII, most economists expected unemployment to increase very sharply in 2009, perhaps breaching the psychologically important three million mark by
the end of the year.
While unemployment has indeed increased noticeably, the rise has not been as rapid and pronounced as previously feared.
Based on the latest labour market figures from September, it now looks unlikely that the jobless total will reach three million before the year is up.

“Part of the explanation for why unemployment has not risen to the levels implied by the recession’s depth is that in many cases employers have opted to reduce working hours and pay rather than make employees redundant. This is reflected in rising part-time employment at the expense of full-time employment , and record low growth in average earnings.

The strategy of cutting hours and pay rather than headcount probably reflects a fear among many employers that they could find themselves short of labour when the economy recovers, thus leaving them less competitive in the longer term. Whether this strategy is sustainable will depend on how quickly the economy recovers.
If output is too slow to recover, then firms may find it necessary to reduce their payrolls further in order to improve productivity and profitability.
Another reason to remain cautious about the future outlook for employment is that the public sector has not yet experienced any significant job losses, but presumably will begin to do so when fiscal policy is tightened from next year onwards.

“Despite continued uncertainties about the future, the better than expected performance of the labour market has probably contributed to the surprise rebound in house prices this year. Even though workers who have been forced from full-time employment into part-time work will have experienced a reduction in income, the impact has been less severe than it would have been if they had lost their jobs completely.

Together with the fact that mortgage rates have fallen sharply as a result of base rate cuts, this has meant that far fewer borrowers have
fallen into arrears than would normally be the case in such a deep recession. In fact, the percentage of borrowers in arrears across the mortgage
industry has even edged down slightly in the most recent quarterly figures (chart 3). As such, the downward pressure on house prices from distressed sales has so far been significantly lower than expected.”

Martin Gahbauer,
Chief Economist
Tel: 01793 655434
martin.gahbauer@nationwide.co.uk

CFA Roy Beale
External Communications Officer
Tel: 01793 655689
roy.beale@nationwide.co.uk

More information

Notes:
Indices and average prices are produced using Nationwide’s updated mix adjusted House Price Methodology which was introduced with effect from the first quarter of 1995. The data are drawn from Nationwide’s house purchase mortgage lending at the post survey approvals stage. Price indices are seasonally adjusted using the US Bureau of the Census X12 method. Currently the calculations are based on a monthly data series starting from January 1991. Figures are recalculated each month which may result in revisions to historical data.

The Nationwide Monthly House Price Index is prepared from information which we believe is collated with care, but no representation is made as to its accuracy or completeness.
We reserve the right to vary our methodology and to edit or discontinue the whole or any part of the Index at any time, for regulatory or other reasons.
Persons seeking to place reliance on the Index for their own or third party commercial purposes do so entirely at their own risk. All changes are nominal and do not allow for inflation.

More information on the house price index methodology along with time series data and archives of housing research can be found at www.nationwide.co.uk/hpi

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The country’s biggest property developers have welcomed government plans to introduce zero carbon commercial buildings from 2018, but have warned that carbon reduction targets will be missed unless existing buildings are tackled.

Property giants including British Land, Hammerson, Hermes, Land Securities, Legal and General. Prupim and SEGRO, who own and manage the country’s biggest shopping centres and offices, want to see display energy certificates (DECs) which clearly show the performance of building when in use, should be made mandatory for all buildings.

Patrick Brown, assistant director for sustainability at the British Property Federation, said:

“We really need clarity now given that the development process can start over a decade in advance of a brick being laid. This is a welcome consultation but the bottom line is that our 2050 target of reducing carbon emissions by 80pc will be missed unless a greater level of attention is given to existing buildings.

“The consultation prioritises energy efficiency which is a good thing since building regulations are readily understood by developers and the bar is raised over a gradual period of time. But the overwhelming focus on new buildings must be accompanied by a greater level of attention to existing stock. The majority of buildings with us now will still be in use in 50 years’ time and side-stepping the difficult questions will cause us more problems in the long term.”

Real estate is responsible for around half of the UK’s carbon emissions.

The industry however, believes government policy has ignored the fact that the majority of commercial property is rented out.

This means landlords cannot simply walk into a tenant’s shop, for example, and turn the lights off. Therefore, any incentives and responsibilities for improving energy performance are widely split between the two groups.

The BPF wants to see measurement based on actual energy use made obligatory for the private sector. This could happen by expanding display energy certificates (DECs) – which measure the operational performance of a building – so that they do not just cover public buildings. (See notes).

Property is responsible for a massive 50 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions, but one of the easiest places to make savings if data is shared and landlords and tenants work together.

Energy use needs to be made transparent if the industry has any hope of meeting green energy targets, believes BPF chief executive Liz Peace. The BPF is pushing for EU law to be changed so that landlords and tenants will be obliged to share energy data. If this happens, then both sides can work together to support real change.

However, Peace admits there is a critical need for firms to change the way they view energy and reduce usage via more effective management before looking at refitting buildings with expensive new gadgets. It is also vital to ensure that any newly installed kit delivers the promised energy and carbon savings, as there is evidence that some developments employ it at planning stage but often don’t use it properly. Essentially, it comes down to effectively measuring what is used.

Experts believe a third of energy use can be cut without any major expenditure, but want research carried out into what financial incentives could spur landlords on to undertake higher cost improvements, looking at where costs and benefits currently do not add up, when all other factors are balanced.

Despite setting up the new Department for Energy and Climate Change there has been no clear policy direction in government with various other departments all covering the same ground. A staggering 70 national and 96 regional bodies currently offer energy efficiency advice. The BPF therefore wants greater clarity on grants and advice that could help green the nation’s buildings. An array of financial benefits already exist (see notes) but few people really know about them.

Peter Clarke, executive officer at British Land, said:

“We have found that simple improvements in energy use can be made by sharing data, which often reveals that changes to behaviour can yield big savings on energy and carbon. The key barrier is that, in many cases, landlords and tenants are unaware of where the opportunities lie. The BPF’s www.les-ter.org toolkit, developed with the Carbon Trust, provides a set of tools and a process to enable landlords and tenants to measure, understand and reduce their emissions.”

Dave Farebrother, environmental director at Land Securities, which has recently announced it will voluntarily introduce DECs across its London portfolio, said:

“At Land Securities we are finding a high degree of willingness among our clients to engage on matters of energy efficiency, and as existing buildings form the larger part of the ongoing carbon problem the quickest, cheapest and biggest wins for the sector come from changing attitudes and behaviours. DECs, which reflect how buildings actually operate, are much more helpful in this regard than a theoretical EPC.”

Bill Hughes, managing director at Legal and General Property, said:

“There is a clear desire at all levels for greener buildings, but this won’t be achieved by focusing exclusively on new build and it won’t be achieved unless the government begins to understand how the market in existing property actually works. Designing new efficient buildings is relatively easy, but without a government-backed initiative to manage down energy use in old stock, targets will remain aspirations.”

Martin Moore, chairman of the BPF’s sustainability committee and chief executive of Prupim, said:

“We need to focus on methods to improve our understanding of what energy we’re actually using. Expanding display energy certificates and providing support to firms to help them measure and reduce energy use is vital. If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it and if you cannot manage it, you certainly cannot reduce it.”

Claudine Blamey, head of sustainability at SEGRO, said:

“The most significant amount of carbon used during the life of a building is in its use phase. At the moment there are no real drivers for occupiers to reduce their energy. We need incentives to change behaviour if we are going to become a low carbon economy.”

Notes for editors

General background

The government will fail to achieve an overall reduction in total UK carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 compared to 1990s levels.

The government is due to produce a big policy paper later in the year on how it intends to deliver these savings. This will be based on consultations like this Heat and Energy Saving Strategy report and the advice of a body called the Committee on Climate Change, composed of independent experts and led by Adair Turner (at the moment).

As buildings account for around half of UK and European emissions, the property industry can most likely bank on having to make sizeable emissions reductions. Certainly the prevailing direction of policy would suggest it.

In its report, the Committee on Climate Change advised the Government to pretty much decarbonise the energy supply in this country. There are significant issues with that, not least the ones experienced by developers who are essentially having to build power stations next to developments. Many want to see a proper national energy strategy to manage the transition to such a low carbon energy supply. In any case it will take time – and so energy efficiency is important to manage energy demand and emissions until we make that transition to low carbon energy supplies.

The adoption of DECs in the private sector could:

• expose the benefits of better management and motivate users to make improvements;
• tackle existing as well as new non-domestic buildings;
• at relatively modest cost, offer recommendations for improvement;
• incentivise local generation or onsite renewable energy production;
• offer a comparison with the rating for the building’s EPC would act as a neat barometer of ‘potential’ versus ‘actual’ energy performance, promoting understanding of this issue; and
• assist in the generation of a database of true building energy performance, which would lead to better policy.

Awareness among possible beneficiaries of Government fiscal support is limited. A report by Element Energy detailed that the following percentages were previously aware of the fiscal support mechanisms listed below:

• Landlord’s Energy Savings Allowance (LESA) – 19%
• Enhanced Capital Allowances (ECA) – 22%
• 5% VAT on energy efficient purchases – 57%
• Grant from the Low Carbon Buildings Programme – 49%
• Climate Change Levy Exemption – 46%

Downloadable documents

Zero Carbon – 443kB.

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