The partners on a green mortgage research project called LENDERS are asking householders for their help to complete a survey that aims to gather key information on homes, their energy ratings and bills.
The Lenders project is chaired by Nationwide Building Society and involves mortgage lenders, building industry experts, green energy groups and sustainability bodies. It looks at ways of moving away from current estimates of energy costs in the mortgage lending process and towards more detailed affordability calculations based on the individual property.
The data gathered will be used to create more accurate information on energy costs and affordability that feeds into the mortgage lending process. Such detailed data could allow lenders to acknowledge that smaller fuel costs could allow more to be borrowed on the mortgage, encourage buyers towards more efficient buildings and potentially reflect the added value of such properties.
Andy Sutton, project lead on the LENDERS project, said: “The survey is critical to the success of our project – the more people who complete the better informed we will be. It takes about four minutes to complete and all information gathered will be treated confidentially and will only be used to inform this project. We need to build a large evidence base, so we’d like to urge people to share the survey with friends and family.”
To complete the survey respondents are asked to have their recent fuel bills and their home’s Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) to refer to, but if these are not available the survey can still be completed. The survey can be found here.
Partners in the LENDERS project include Nationwide Building Society, BRE, Principality Building Society, UK Green Building Council, Constructing Excellence in Wales, Energy Saving Trust, Arup and University College London (UCL).
For a recent feature on green mortgages which takes a look at the LENDERS project and other options available to homeowners who want to do their bit for the environment, click here.
