A survey conducted by Landbay showed that a quarter of landlords will only make changes to their property if legislation requires them to, while 13 per cent do not plan to do anything.
Of those who have properties with a low EPC rating, 62 per cent intend to upgrade to a C. Some 42 per cent said they would make changes at some point while a fifth plan to improve their property as soon as they can.
Landbay said this was a change in attitude since the minimum requirement was scrapped by the Prime Minister in September.
Before this, 73 per cent of landlords said they planned to improve the rating of their properties to a C, while 39 per cent wanted to wait until the deadline to make changes. Around a third intended to upgrade their property sooner.
Not all landlords agreed with the government’s change of plans, as a quarter said they were not in favour of the minimum EPC requirements being removed.
They believed it was necessary as a social and environmental duty.
Rob Stanton, business development director at Landbay, said: “We applaud the sentiment around trying to improve the energy efficiency of buildings but we also need to be realistic. The UK has a vast amount of older housing that is difficult to retrofit and will be expensive.
“Some landlords said they would be encouraged to update their property if there was more government help such as easy accessibility to grants. Over half of rental properties in the UK are D rated or lower, so landlords now have some breathing space to plan without a looming deadline.”
