Meta-Analysis of Price Premiums in Housing with Energy Performance Certificates (EPC)

Abstract

Studies have found that housing with energy performance certificates have a positive premium in sales price. However, other studies have obtained negative or unexpected results. The objective of this study is to determine whether or not housing with energy performance certificates (EPC) have positive premiums in the sales price. For this purpose, a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression of prior studies were conducted in order to determine whether the existence of an EPC influences sales price. A total of 66 documents were examined, with a total of 173 sales registers. The impact of having or not having an EPC was analyzed for housing sales price premiums on a global level, as well as the premiums in Europe for each of the ABCDEFG qualification letters. The results suggest that: 1) Globally speaking, it is estimated that housing with an EPC has an overall price premium of 4.20%, on a continent level, with premiums of 5.36% being obtained in North America, 4.81% in Asia, and 2.32% in Europe; 2) in Europe, the results are not conclusive with regards to the ABCDEFG qualification, since there is no consensus as to the letter base to be used as a reference for comparisons, thereby generating small comparable samples.