While the most energy-intensive accommodation will no longer be rentable from January 1, more and more voices are being raised against the lack of time to renovate the thermal colanders. But for Olivier Klein, Minister of Housing, there is no question of questioning the calendar of rental bans for thermal strainers.
For some landlords, there is no more choice: they will have to carry out renovation work to continue renting their accommodation. In effect, from 1 January 2023, the most energy-intensive homes, known as G+ and which consume more than 450 kWh per square meter per year, will be prohibited from re-letting. This means that at the end of the current lease on that date, the property can no longer be rented without improving its score on the energy performance diagnosis (EPD).
Class G housing will then follow in January 2025, then F (2028) and E (2034). If this last date may seem distant, the problem is already there. According to the National Observatory for Energy Renovation, 5.2 million main residences in France are today considered to be thermal sieves, ie class F or G. That is 17.3% of the French housing stock. And in some localities, such as ski resorts, more than 7 properties out of 10 are affected by the problem.
But some actors consider this calendar difficult to keep, for lack of enough professionals. The MaPrimeRnov’ system is also criticized and suffers from numerous delays and difficulties. In the face of criticism, the Minister of Housing wanted to be reassuring. Regarding MaPrimeRnov’, Olivier Klein only deplores 400 complaints out of 1.5 million files.
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If he assures that he is listening to the problems encountered, he also rents the device from the Huffington Post: The work must have taken place and the invoices must be presented before obtaining a refund. It then takes fifteen working days to receive his premium. For the most modest, we have just launched the zero rate eco-loan with simplified procedures. With 25,000 files processed per week, there are bound to be adjustments to be made, we are working hard on it. Still according to him, 750,000 renovations carried out per year since the launch of the system. It’s not enough, but, in all, 1.5 million sites have been achieved in two years and 80% of the work benefits the most modest, still assures the minister.
To increase the pace and keep to this schedule, the Minister announced, in remarks reported by The Parisianthe implementation from the beginning of 2023 of an action plan bringing together real estate players to accelerate the eradication of energy strainers while supporting landlords. A monitoring committee made up of professionals will be responsible for meeting three to four times a year to review the progress of this action plan and its needs.
Questioned during the annual congress of real estate agents of the National Real Estate Federation (Fnaim), this Tuesday, December 6, the minister was also reminded that certain banking establishments were reluctant to finance certain energy renovation works. Confirming this idea, Olivier Klein assured that a meeting with the country’s main banks is scheduled for early January to initiate a dialogue and find solutions.