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RICS begins consultation on new residential retrofit standard

Journalist: Jake Carter, Mortgage Introducer

ended 01. August 2023

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has opened an eight-week long consultation to gather input from members and industry professionals on the new RICS Residential Retrofit Standard.

The new standard will be developed following the consultation, as a response to a demand for high-quality residential retrofit advice, brought by increasingly high energy prices and the UK government’s net-zero targets.

What do you think of the new standard?

Is this something you have been calling for?

How do you expect this to benefit brokers?

Will there be a knock-on benefit for consumers?

2 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Darryl Dhoffer
Founder at The Mortgage Geezer
There are benefits of using the RICS Residential Retrofit Standard, which are:

It provides a consistent approach to retrofit assessments.
It helps to ensure that retrofit measures are effective and meet the needs of the property owner.
It can help to reduce the cost of retrofit projects, and improve energy efficency
However, I can see potential downsides to the standard that will need to be considered:
It could be expensive, as it will require specialist consultants, and contractors, and could be unaffordable for homeowners or landlords.
The standard may not be comprehensive enough to cover all aspects of retrofit and may be too complex for some homeowners or landlords to understand.
The standard may not be updated frequently enough to reflect changes in the retrofit industry.
For brokers the standard could be a valuable tool, to enhance your credibility and increase knowledge and expertise.
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Scott Taylor-Barr
Principal Adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management
Consultations such as this are a vital mechanism to ensure that any change in the market norms runs across all participants in the chain; it's no good if certain aspects of the eco-system are OK with a certain "improvement" if then lenders, or their insurers, see a problem. We had issues with spray foam insulation, some forms of cavity wall insulation and solar panels in the past, so a consultation from RICS that allows some joined-up thinking is very much the best way for the whole market to move forward and help consumers reduce their homes carbon footprint by making them more energy efficient, without risking a future issue with mortgage funding or re-sale.