Shout about your good EPC Grade – it could help you secure a new tenant

Attracting an income-producing tenant to a vacant building is hard work. Retaining existing rent-paying tenants and getting them to sign a lease renewal is challenging. Competing landlords want to move good tenants out of your buildings and into theirs.

Increasingly, landlords are seeking to promote their buildings’ sustainability credentials to secure new tenants and retain existing tenants. Promoting your building’s good EPC Grade is a highly effective tool. For the past 16 years commercial EPCs have been the UK’s statutory energy efficiency measurement system. The EPC system has become more and more accurate over the years and there are now over 1 million commercial EPCs on the Government’s national database – www.epcregister.com. 

Just about all rental buildings in the UK have been assessed and have their EPC certificate on the public database. The robust EPC measurement system is a British success story. It has driven enormous improvements in the quality and efficiency of the UK’s commercial property rental stock.

If you have a building with an EPC of Grade A, Grade B or Grade C – that is an EPC in the ‘green zone’ of the A-G graph – then why not produce an EPC success sign to prominently display in the building’s Reception area?

Your action check-list:

1. Download a pdf of your building’s EPC from the national database – www.epcregister.com. All you need is the postcode.
2. Drop the pdf into a Word document and add the suggested words from our example below.
3. Add your own company logo to the sign if you are the managing agent or landlord.
4. Print off at A3 in colour. Use a local Prontaprint if you do not have an A3 colour printer.
5. Buy an A3 snap frame from Amazon or eBay.
6. If the sign is going outside, have it printed on 5mm Foamex weatherproof board with drilled corners. Lots of printers on the web provide this service, such as www.print-2-media.com.
7. Ask your handyman to mount your EPC success sign in Reception, by the main entrance, in meeting rooms, in shared kitchens etc.

If you have not got time to do this, outsource the task to your marketing team or a freelance graphic designer. 

Below we have shown some examples of possible building signage to promote the landlord’s use of a 100% renewable electricity tariff, and a Net Zero Carbon in Operation building. 

If you are a managing agent look through your EPC spreadsheet and prepare an EPC success sign for your best buildings. Your tenants, and very importantly your own client, will appreciate it. Clients value proactive professional advisers.

If you are a landlord or asset manager of an empty building ask your marketing agent to promote the building’s good EPC credentials on the brochure and building’s website. There are an increasing number of tenants who won’t even view an office or industrial building unless it has an EPC of Grade A or Grade B.  

Many decision-makers care about sustainability and you can’t tell by looking at them. Hedge your bets and promote your building’s good EPC – it could make all the difference in securing future rental income and value.