Barclays will launch the UK mortgage market’s first ever ‘green mortgage’, which will offer preferential rates for those buying an energy-efficient new build property.
The green home mortgage will be available next week on properties with an A or B Energy Performance Certificate rating, while there will be 2 and 5-year fixed rate options to 90% loan-to-value.
This will be an increasingly important part of the mortgage market in years to come. Decarbonising UK housing stock is critical and forms a key part of the UK government’s clean growth strategy. Increasingly homeowners want to say, “we are getting on board with a low carbon future.”
Barclays will initially partner with Barratt Homes, Berkeley Group, Countryside Properties, Crest Nicholson and Redrow Homes, with a view to adding all major housebuilders by the end of the year. The government’s decarbonisation targets have motivated the bank to expand its green activities where commercially viable.
Barclays seem to have taken a leading role in developing the green mortgage, it is likely to encourage other lenders to provide competition with their own green mortgages.
General opinion within the mortgage industry believes green mortgages are going to emerge as a big asset class. The EPC data Barclays utilises for the mortgage is publicly available, meaning other institutions could utilise the same data in such a way.
HSBC is another UK lender throwing its weight behind environmentally friendly schemes. The bank has pledged to provide $100bn in sustainable financing and investment by 2025 for “clean energy and lower-carbon technologies”.
The launch of the green mortgage coincides with energy efficiency regulation hitting the private rental sector this month.
Properties being rented out are now required to have an EPC rating of E or better on new tenancies and renewals.
Barclays have hinted at launching greener financial products over the course of 2018.
Energy saving advice?
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