The energy diagnosis of homes, eternally imperfect

“Simplify” DPE for housing of less than 30 m2, or even 50 m2, occupied by students or the most disadvantaged households: this is the government’s watchword as the fateful date of January 1, 2025 approaches. , which provides for a ban on the rental of accommodation labeled “G”, the worst rating from the DPE.

In the midst of the housing crisis, this provision of the 2021 Climate law risks, according to the Association of Mayors of France, "suddenly reducing rental supply", even if the law only applies to new leases.

Established in 2006, the DPE classifies housing from A to G based on their energy consumption and, since 2021, their impact on the climate.

The new DPE, unanimously considered "more reliable" because it is no longer based on energy bills, but on the characteristics of the building, is nevertheless still contested.

In mid-February, the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu will announce his "simplification" to "maintain the ambition of the initial schedule" while "making the system more reliable for small areas" and implementing "flexibility measures" in anticipation of the deadline of January 1, 2025.

According to the National Energy Renovation Observatory, nearly 34% of homes of less than 30 m2 have an F or G label, compared to 13% of homes of more than 100 m2.

In Paris, where 66% of the private rental stock is classified E, F or G, Housing Deputy Jacques Baudrier wrote to the Prime Minister to propose the postponement, under conditions, of a timetable deemed unattainable.

“The timetable is too short for all the co-ownerships engaged in the renovation process to have completed their work before January 1, 2025,” writes the communist elected official, fearing that these accommodations “will no longer be able to be re-rented”. That is 60.000 housing units in Paris and 170.000 in Ile-de-France.

"DPE light"

“The State passed a law without providing enough financial resources to apply it,” he told AFP.

A position that the deputy for ecological transition Dan Lert (EELV) does not share. According to him, it is “essential to maintain the timetable to achieve the objectives of the Paris Climate plan and fight against energy poverty”.

“More than 10.000 people die each year in France from poor insulation in their homes,” underlines the elected official, also against a change in the calculation rules.

The government initiative, however, delights construction and real estate professionals.

“These are adjustments which will not profoundly modify the impact of the DPE on the real estate market”, assures Loïc Cantin, president of the National Real Estate Federation, for whom the date of January 1, 2025 constitutes on the other hand “total legal insecurity”.

“Any housing G which will pass this deadline will be struck by indecency”, he assures.

Olivier Salleron, president of the French Building Federation, believes that the Climate law was passed "without consultation" and that it now requires "loosening the rope by creating a 'light' DPE".

Among diagnosticians, opinions differ.

If the Interprofessional Federation of Real Estate Diagnostics believes that there is a need for a “corrective for small areas”, this is not the opinion of Jean-Christophe Protais, president of Sidiane, the Interprofessional Real Estate Diagnostic Union.

“The DPE does not penalize small areas. It shows that intrinsically, a small area consumes more energy and emits more greenhouse gases in proportion to its surface area. It is scientific,” he observes.

“Tampering with the DPE means that with the wave of a magic wand, G housing will move to D, which means that owners who have launched their renovation will feel cheated and those who have not done so will procrastinate,” adds- he, also recommending “giving more flexibility on deadlines”.

In an article published Wednesday in Les Échos, two researchers admit that measuring instruments “are never perfect”.

“Expecting from the DPE an exact prediction of real consumption” is according to them “illusory” but abandoning it would amount to “making energy poverty ‘invisible’”.