After a five-year consultation period in which commercial real estate owners were left in limbo, the government has revealed the date by which energy-efficiency upgrades must be completed.

More than £600B of commercial assets fall below the minimum requirement and will need a significant retrofit.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced late last week that commercial properties will have until 2031 to hit an Energy Performance Certificate of B or above.

That is a delay of one year on the previous deadline of 2030.

The government has dropped an interim deadline of 2027 by which buildings needed to reach an EPC rating of C or above, giving landlords more time to improve performance.

Buildings of 11K SF or below will be exempt from the requirements.

The results were published in an interim response to a consultation that started in 2021. The requirements are expected to become law in the next year or so.

Landlords have been uncertain whether to press ahead with upgrade works until they know the deadlines by which certain EPC levels must be met.

About 73% of UK commercial property has an EPC rating of C or below, according to Easy EPC. The UK commercial real estate sector is valued between £900B and £1.3T, according to estimates from the British Property Federation and CBRE.

Stripping out smaller assets, that means about £600B to £800B of assets don’t meet the minimum standards.