Four stories today pull in different directions but land on the same point: nobody in this market has the luxury of waiting for things to settle. Buyers say they’ll pay thousands more for an efficient home, yet half of owners can’t afford to make theirs one. Rightmove’s index shows asking prices nudging up for the first time since May, while demand keeps shrinking underneath it. A London tenant has just proved, again, that a mould wash is not a repair. And in a week, the transitional window on second staircases for tall blocks closes for good.
Buyers will pay £5,300 for a good EPC. Half of owners can’t afford to earn it.
Research from lender Together, covered by Property118, surveyed 2,000 UK adults and found 74 per cent of buyers would pay more for an energy-efficient home, with those willing to do so prepared to spend an average of £5,293 extra. Forty-five per cent rank low energy bills among the most important factors when buying, and 15 per cent say high running costs are enough to rule a property out altogether. Seventy-three per cent worry a poor EPC rating will make a home harder to sell within five years. But on the supply side, half of homeowners say the cost of upgrades is the single biggest obstacle to improving their rating, and 34 per cent are actively considering the work but simply cannot afford it — though 63 per cent say they’d act if affordable financing existed. The regional spread is stark: 82.21 per cent of homes in Tower Hamlets reach EPC Band C or above, against 12.42 per cent on the Isles of Scilly and 27.79 per cent in Gwynedd. Together’s chief commercial officer Ryan Etchells put it plainly: “Energy efficiency is a key part of affordability, so homes with lower running costs are becoming more attractive.”
The buyer premium is real in theory, but there is no functioning mechanism connecting it to the owners who most need it. The worst-rated stock sits disproportionately with older, rural and lower-income households — exactly the group least able to find £10,000–£15,000 for external wall insulation or an air source heat pump up front, premium or no premium. This is my own patch in miniature: a Sussex cottage sitting in the low D or high E band is unremarkable, and the retrofit route to a genuine EPC C rarely costs anything close to what a buyer says they’d pay for it.
Anyone planning to sell within the next two to three years should get an independent retrofit assessment now to find out the real cost of closing the gap, rather than assuming the survey headline translates into a blank cheque from a buyer. Owners already struggling with the cost should treat the Warm Homes Plan’s grant routes as the more realistic path than banking on resale value alone.
Asking prices went up in September. Don’t call it a recovery.
Rightmove’s House Price Index, published 21 September, shows average new seller asking prices rose 0.7 per cent (£2,441) in September to £367,440 — the first monthly rise since May and larger than the usual 0.5 per cent seasonal bump. Prices remain 0.8 per cent below year-ago levels and 2.3 per cent below the early-summer peak. Buyer enquiries are down 9 per cent on last year, and the gap between regions is wide: 91 per cent of Scottish listings go on to agree a sale versus 42 per cent in London. Nationally, 74 per cent of homes that sold this year did so without a price reduction. The average two-year fixed mortgage rate climbed to 5.29 per cent from 5.09 per cent over the month, adding roughly £180 to monthly payments since late February. Benham and Reeves director Marc von Grundherr said pricing correctly “is absolutely vital, particularly in London where buyers have choice and little patience” for overpriced homes, while Rightmove’s Matt Smith noted that “affordability remains a significant challenge for many” buyers.
Read past the headline rise and this is a seasonal autumn bounce sitting on top of falling demand and rising mortgage costs, not a change of direction. The 49-point gap in sale success between Scotland and London says more about agents overpricing in a market with little patience than it does about any national recovery.
Sellers should price against their local agreed-sale rate rather than the national Rightmove headline, and get a proper condition survey done before marketing rather than after a buyer’s own report knocks the offer down in a market this unforgiving of overpricing.
One week left on the second staircase workaround
From 30 September, amendments to Approved Document B make two staircases mandatory for new residential buildings in England with a top storey at 18 metres or above, roughly six storeys and up, as Forsters LLP’s briefing sets out. Transitional protection only survives where a building notice, initial notice or full-plans application was submitted before that date, and construction is “sufficiently progressed” — meaning foundations or piling genuinely under way, not merely site clearance. Anything that misses the window needs a fresh two-staircase design submitted from scratch. Forsters note that adding a second staircase typically forces a substantial redesign that cuts unit numbers and needs a planning variation rather than a minor amendment, uncertainty that has already delayed an estimated 38,000 London homes. Some in the industry call the rule a box-ticking exercise that risks distracting from other fire safety measures.
This is a building control question with a hard deadline attached, and it matters well beyond developers. Anyone advising a purchaser or lender on a new-build flat in a tall block needs to know which regime the scheme was actually approved under, because a stalled single-staircase scheme could face a redesign cost nobody has budgeted for.
Anyone with an interest in a slow-moving new-build block above 18 metres should ask the developer, in writing, whether the building control submission predates 30 September and whether foundations are physically in the ground — a planning permission alone does not satisfy the transitional test.
Mould washes aren’t a repair, and the courts keep proving it
A London local authority tenant in a three-bedroom maisonette has won £6,250 in damages after years of complaints about black mould and damp affecting nearly every room, as MJV Solicitors reports. The landlord repeatedly blamed condensation and responded only with mould washes and ventilation advice, while an expert identified around £4,365 of outstanding remedial work needed to address the actual causes: defective windows, cold bridging and inadequate ventilation. The case settled by Tomlin Order shortly before trial, securing the damages, an enforceable 90-day repair deadline and the tenant’s costs. As the solicitors put it: “Simply removing visible mould does not necessarily address the underlying cause if structural defects, inadequate ventilation, cold bridging or defective windows remain.” It is a preview of what enforcement will look like once Awaab’s Law Phase 2, confirmed for 30 November, extends the same fixed statutory clock — 24 hours for emergency hazards, 10 working days to investigate significant ones, five working days to complete safety works — to seven more hazard categories including structural collapse, excess cold and falls, on top of the damp and mould duties already running since October 2025.
A landlord who treats symptoms while ignoring the building envelope loses in court now, and will soon be doing so against a fixed timetable that leaves no room to repeat the same cosmetic response twice. For a surveyor, it is the expert evidence on root cause — cold bridging, window condition, ventilation provision — that decides these cases, not the visible mould itself.
Social landlords and managing agents have roughly two months to audit stock against the expanded Phase 2 hazard list before the clock starts running on 30 November, rather than finding out the gaps after the first missed deadline. Tenants facing recurring mould after a repaint should ask in writing for a structural and ventilation survey, not another wash.
What I’d actually do
- Selling within the next two to three years? Get an independent retrofit assessment now to know your real EPC upgrade cost before promising a buyer a premium you may not be able to deliver.
- Selling this autumn? Price against your local agreed-sale rate, not the national Rightmove headline, and commission a condition survey before marketing.
- Buying or advising on a new-build flat over 18 metres? Ask the developer in writing whether the building control submission predates 30 September and whether foundations are genuinely under way.
- Managing social housing stock? Audit against the Awaab’s Law Phase 2 hazard list now, before the statutory clock starts on 30 November.
- Living with recurring mould after a repaint? Request a structural and ventilation survey in writing rather than accepting another mould wash.
Whether it’s an EPC upgrade that needs pricing honestly or a tall block whose approval history needs checking, the practice carries out independent Building Surveys and EPCs across the South East. Get in touch.
Small print. General commentary, not advice for your specific circumstances — regulations, schemes and deadlines change, and your property is not the average property. Sources linked were accurate when read on 24 September 2026.