Valuable sesame for selling or renting a property, the DPE (energy performance diagnosis) makes it possible to evaluate the energy expenditure of a dwelling. With global warming, energy renovation has become a national issue. Dwellings rated E, F and G, the lowest ratings, have their rents blocked and some of them become unsuitable for rental. A new regulation that reshuffles the cards of the real estate market.
” 35 m2, two rooms and lots of windows, but poorly insulated. I can open [la fenêtre] no problem, however when I close it, it no longer gets stuck in the joint. If there’s a gust of wind, it opens on the fly », shows us Marie.
She lives in an old building near the Bastille. His apartment does not meet the new criteria and his owner must carry out the work requested. He sent her a specialist.
” He did tell me he could get the windows to close and then give the owner a quote. He made it clear to me that in any case, given the state, he was obliged to intervene. adds Mary. ” Finally, we are in a position of strength in relation to the owner who knows that for the moment it is no longer legal and therefore I can indeed have means of pressure “, underlines the tenant.
A financial effort to provide on the part of the owners
In France, 80% of landlords have two homes, often retirees who have acquired them for additional income. This new DPE puts in difficulty the most modest who, unable to finance the work, sell their property, with an average discount of 10%. Others choose to take it off the market and wait.
There remain those who, despite the unforeseen expense, make the financial effort. Jean-Pierre lives in the provinces, he has a studio in the Paris region and a two-room apartment in Lille. The latter, under the roof, no longer responds to new DPEs. ” I think it’s necessary both for the tenant and at the same time, we are still in a system where we want to try to save money and that requires everyone’s effort. I think that the property will also be profitable afterwards with this investment “says the owner.
Towards a housing shortage?
Accelerating housing renovation to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 risks worsening the shortage of rental housing in stretched areas and in cities with many students.
For Christophe Demerson, president of the UNPI, the National Union of Individual Owners, the state is imposing an untenable schedule. ” The government preferred the hammer method. The problem anyway is that we don’t have the materials and we don’t have the labor “, explains Christophe Demerson. ” We were already insisting on materials before the war in Ukraine, since before the end of the Covid in China we already saw the major supply problems on construction sites, and besides that, we also have today a labor problem. ” He pursues : “ You have to realize that here, we are talking about the construction site of the century since we have to renovate more than half of the apartments and houses in France. In any case, we know that we will not be able to keep this schedule. »
In total, more than 7 million dwellings would thus be excluded from the rental market in just over ten years. Only owner-occupiers of energy-intensive housing and tourist-oriented rentals are exempt from these new DPEs.