Should you become a Green Landlord?
The energy crisis is something that is likely to become more and more prominent over the coming years as the UK as a whole looks to reduce its energy consumption, lower carbon emissions and work towards having renewable energy in the future.
This is an issue that is pertinent to everyone, including landlords who will be coming across more and more tenants and letting agents who want to know how green and carbon friendly their properties are!
But should you become a green landlord now? In a few years, new laws around energy usage may mean that you have no choice, but at the moment it is debatable as to whether or not you should start to make your properties more energy friendly:
Negatives of Going Green
The Cost
Everyone knows that better insulation, draft excluders and solar panels etc can save you money on your energy bills, but they can be very costly to install. What’s more, if your tenants pay the energy bills you won’t be saving any moment on them but will be shelling out for the initial cost.
Install Time
As well as costing money, things such as low-flush toilets can take a considerable amount of time to install and can render the property unliveable whilst being put in, meaning you can’t have any tenants in the property and will be losing money on it.
Insurance Costs
If you have more expensive equipment in your property, such as solar panels, the property as a whole is likely to cost more to insure, meaning your landlord insurance premiums will be higher.
Positives of Going Green
Attracting tenants
One of the main benefits of going green as a landlord is the ability to attract more tenants. If you offer people lower energy bills you will be able to attract more people or even raise your rental yields and make more from the property.
Government Help
It may seem costly to go green, but from Autumn this year the government will help landlords with the costs of going green, if their tenants ask for it in the property. Meaning you could reduce the onetime cost for a lifetime of savings.
Compliance
Because the UK has promised to lower its carbon emissions and energy usage in coming years, they will be new laws imposed to make sure we are all reducing our energy consumption. Therefore, it is recommended to prepare for this now rather than having a nasty shock in a few months or years time.
There may be a substantial initial outlay when it comes to going green but the long term positives of an eco-friendly house seem to outweigh the one off costs.
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What’s more, it may become a necessity as opposed to an option in coming years and so now is an ideal time to prepare for going green, especially with the government help later this year.
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