It is a small millstone house from 1910, in the village of Saint-Vrain (Essonne), just above the bar-tabac of the town, which has just over 3,000 inhabitants. On the second floor, under the roof, a 19 square meter studio is for sale: kitchenette, living area, bathroom and toilet. Price: 69,000 euros. However, it has been on the market for three months and has not found a buyer. “People flatly refused to visit!”, is surprised Fabien Gorgelin, the agent of the IAD France network who is in charge of the sale. “These are mainly investors and they immediately ask me for the classification of the energy performance diagnosis of the property. When I tell them that it is in G, they tell me that they will not visit it. Regardless of the price. “
And for good reason: from January 1, 2023, the apartment can no longer be rented. This is an effect of the Climate and Resilience law, adopted by Parliament in August 2021. In order to reduce the number of energy sieves and promote renovation work, it plans to prohibit rental of the most energy-intensive housing, that is to say those who are classified from E to G in the scale of the energy performance diagnosis (DPE), by 2034. If 644,073 owners were able to renovate their homes and improve their energy performance in 2021 thanks to financial aid from MaPrimeRenov’, according to figures released by the National Housing Agency (Anah) on Wednesday January 26, the owner of this studio did not wish to hire any. Consequence: landlords run off.
“The Climate law will scare away investors who want to rent because it is a brake. We can already feel it. It is blocking the market.”
Fabien Gorgelin, IAD France agent in Essonneat franceinfo
G units are not the only ones to suffer from investor concerns. Even F-rated homes, which can therefore be rented out until 2028, are scrapped. “It is systematically subject to discussion”, testifies Léa Miguet, who also works for IAD France in Essonne. She is in the process of finalizing the sale of a T2 in Corbeil-Essonnes, classified F and which is primarily aimed at a rental investment. For the first time in her career, she saw a sale being conditional on ECD. “The future buyer asked the owner to do some work so that we go from F to E.” A request formulated even in the sales agreement signed at the notary, in the list of suspensive clauses for the sale. Unheard of in his career.
The owner therefore did the work himself: insulation of one of the walls with plates and installation of a hygro-adjustable CMV, which limits energy loss. “I’m quite a handyman and the work wasn’t too big. I knew it wouldn’t require too much personal investment.” In the end, he spent 550 euros and five days on the task. “If it had been necessary to redo the concrete screed to insulate on the ground, it’s not sure that I would have done it or even that I would have had the work done. I might have tried to sell it as without being sure of finding a buyer.”
Léa Miguet confirms: “We would have sold it but with another price drop. I have another apartment in F, in Paris, which has been completely refurbished. Despite this, given that it is in F, it will be more complicated for sale and I think we will still have some negotiation.”
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The owner of the Saint-Vrain apartment, for his part, excludes doing any work before the sale. “When you have a property for sale, it’s hard to get it into your head that even before selling it, you have to do 10,000 or 15,000 euros of work… I don’t know of an owner ready to commit to that. -inside”, justifies Fabien Gorgelin. Some even prefer to sell right away, before they are forced to do the work or the market is potentially flooded with energy sieves. “There are significantly more properties arriving on the market in F or G, for the simple and good reason that the owners say to themselves that it is perhaps better to sell them today and target first-time buyers who will not have the obligation to do the work. They therefore prefer to sell now”assures Léa Miguet, of IAD France.
Save who can among landlords? The diagnosis is not found everywhere. On the side of Century 21 and Foncia, two big players in the market, there are indeed difficulties in selling properties classified F or G but we assure that there is no “wave” of housing F and G coming up for sale because of the law. “There is very likely a bias linked to the new DPE”we slip on the side of Century 21, the first real estate network in France.
Because it is indeed necessary to add to the future legislation the development of a new diagnosis of energy performance, supposed to accompany the movement in favor of the energy renovation impelled by the Climate law. His calling? To be “more readable and more reliable”, according to the Ministry of Housing. Introduced on July 1, 2021, it now requires calculating the energy performance of a good according to its intrinsic characteristics and takes into account greenhouse gas emissions. Finished, therefore, the method establishing the DPE according to the energy bills of the housing.
“There are many more residential properties that have lost a rating, especially for those with gas heating. Boilers pollute more, so inevitably the ratings drop”analyzes Olivier Charrier, diagnostician in Île-de-France. “Many more criteria are taken into account”, he explains. This goes from the nature of the walls, to their exposure, through the ventilation system. “It surprised me because my ECD was not old”, remembers the owner of the Corbeil-Essonnes apartment sold by Léa Miguet. Indeed, the apartment was classified as E when he bought it, three years earlier.
And he is not the only one to have had a bad surprise: “One of my colleagues had an apartment in D two years ago, in a residence. Today, he is selling another apartment, in the same residence, with the same characteristics as the other, and he has moved to F .”
“It’s more of a machine for creating energy-intensive housing.”
Pierre Hautus, Director General of the National Union of Real Estate Property (UNPI)at franceinfo
This new version of the DPE has become the pet peeve of real estate agents and owners. “It’s a source of stress”confides Léa Miguet. “We feel that the owners are waiting”says Olivier Charrier modestly. “In my opinion, we have poorly measured the impact of this DPE on the reality of the future classification of French housing.”
What is it really? The latest study dates back to September 2020. At the time, the Ministry of Ecological Transition estimated that 17% of main residences were energy strainers (this corresponded at the time to F and G), i.e. 4.8 million of accommodation.
If no consolidated figures are available for the moment concerning the new version of the DPE – they will arrive in March – “we do not expect an explosion in the number of energy sieves”says the side of the Ministry of Housing. “There is no signal in that sense.” The Fnaim, the leading real estate union, for its part, advances an estimate of between 7 and 8 million, including E housing, which will be prohibited from renting from 2034.
With more energy strainers in the housing stock and gradual bans, is there a risk of a heavier housing market lockdown in the months to come? “I don’t have the feeling of a massive divestment as I speak to you, but I have the feeling that a certain number of divestment decisions will be taken on this type of property from 2022”, says Jean-Marc Torrollion, the boss of Fnaim. He says he is convinced that some of the owners are waiting for the presidential election to decide, which is confirmed by Century 21. Owners who finally opt for a sale will therefore take the risk of seeing the price of their property drop sharply or of having to undertake the works. Even, as for the apartment sold by Léa Miguet in Corbeil-Essonnes.
The winners of the operation will perhaps be the owner-occupiers. Indeed, there is currently no energy renovation obligation for people who own a property in which they live. The fall in prices could therefore potentially facilitate access to property for more modest households. “For the co-owners it could be a good thing because having donors poses big problems in the co-ownerships, especially for the financing of the works”welcomes Emilie Allain, president of the National Association of co-ownership and co-owners. “Lenders have no interest in carrying out work and investments that would undermine their profitability”she explains, adding that the energy renovation of a building is often a matter of big money, for which you have to project yourself over ten or twenty years. “This is not the logic of landlords who want to spend a minimum and earn a maximum”she says.
But will the new owner-occupiers have the means to do the work to improve their own energy comfort? If the fall in prices can allow them to access the property, the aid from MaPrimeRenov’ (between 1,000 and 3,000 euros on average), does not cover all the costs of the work which, for the most energy-intensive housing , can be significant. In addition, part of the work may be subject to the opinion of the co-ownership. “The ability of co-owners to understand the need for this energy renovation is not always the same. .” There is therefore a risk of seeing tenants of an energy sieve become owners… of an energy sieve.
Another risk, according to real estate players: the creation of tension on the rental market. “Behind this disinvestment by landlords, which could be profitable for some, there is the danger of having a weakened private rental stock, which could lead to a number of tenants being ‘outcasted’. who would have holidays for sale, would not be able to buy these homes and would turn around on a market which is in decline in terms of the number of offers”, warns Jean-Marc Torrollion. These same tenants would also be forced to pay more to find housing, the more efficient housing being – logically – more expensive. Pierre Hautus, of the UNPI, wonders in the same way: “How are we going to house the French? There are already tense areas and it will continue to become tense if we destroy rental supply.”
According to the director general of the UNPI, owners who do not want to sell or do the work could also find a hole in the racket of the Climate law. “There are some investors who will turn away from traditional rentals for main housing and turn to other types of rentals: seasonal, office, event”, he lists. Sectors with better profitability and fewer constraints, if at all with regard to energy performance. Some could even, according to him, be tempted to leave the accommodation empty rather than incur costs for work.