Real estate and building professionals welcomed Monday’s announcement of a change in the calculation of the energy performance diagnosis (DPE) for small housing, but some see it as a bad signal sent to landlords, who would be tempted to delay their work.
The Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Bchu announced a correction by decision of the bias in calculating the DPE for housing less than 40 m2, which should remove 140,000 housing units from the category of energy strainers (labels F or G).
The smaller the surface area of a home, the more the share of domestic hot water weighs on its classification, with no real link to the number of occupants, the minister justified in Le Parisien.
Established in 2006, the DPE classifies AG housing according to their energy consumption and, since 2021, their impact on the climate.
Since January 1, 2023, the law prohibits the rental of the most energy-intensive housing (classes G+). The ban will be extended from January 1, 2025 to all class G housing.
The new DPE was put in place without consultation in 2021 and this modification will allow apartments to be rented again, even if we create a DPE lightcongratulated the president of the French Building Federation, Olivier Salleron, to AFP.
Individuals will be able to better see what added value they have renovated, also welcomed Jean-Christophe Repon, president of Capeb, the employers’ organization of building craftsmen.
Gift to owners
This is beneficial even if the government could have modified the calculation of the DPE for homes heated with electricity, penalized compared to gas, judged the president of the National Real Estate Federation, Loc Cantin.
The three federations of diagnosticians welcomed the measures which consist of applying a weighting coefficient on the production of hot water without touching the DPE calculation engine or asking the diagnosticians to intervene again on the DPEs already carried out.
The reactions of the associations are more nuanced.
This is a wonderful gift to owners since it will put thermal paving stones back on the market, denounced Eddie Jacquemart, president of the National Housing Confederation, the leading association of HLM tenants and close to the Communist Party.
It is not a gift but it will allow us to have a better image of the real state of the housing, assures the consumer association CLCV, for whom the new rule will avoid circumvention on the part of landlords.
The Abb Pierre Foundation is talking about adjustments and not modifications which disrupt the schedule of obligations with only 140,000 housing units affected.
Christophe Bchu also announced on Monday that an amendment would be tabled to prevent a tenant from being forcibly removed from their thermal sieve accommodation on January 1, 2025.
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