Green Mortgage
Lender discounts for energy-efficient homes
A green mortgage is a lender's product that rewards an energy-efficient home. The reward is usually a lower rate, cashback at completion, or a larger loan. Banks and building societies set their own thresholds, most at EPC band A or B. No government body defines the term or polices it. The products are sold across the whole UK.
What This Means
The report reads this property's EPC band and calls a green deal likely or unlikely. That is a read-off from one letter, not a lending decision. No lender has looked at this property. An unlikely verdict withholds a discount; it does not flag a problem. It has no bearing on whether you can get a mortgage at all. Eligibility can be earned rather than inherited, because a new certificate after improvement works moves the band. This is one of the few things on this report that lenders and insurers price directly: a green deal typically shaves 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points off the same lender's standard product.
Practical Advice
- Ask your mortgage broker to price this lender's green product against the whole market, not just its own standard rate.
- Ask your broker what the green product's arrangement fee is, and whether the discount covers it.
- Ask your conveyancer to confirm the band on the EPC register matches the band the seller's listing advertises.
- Ask the lender in writing whether a new EPC after improvement works would move you onto its green product.
Key Points
- EPC band B begins at a score of 81 out of 100. A home scoring 80 sits in band C and misses a B-threshold lender's product by a single point.
- A green deal is priced off the certificate on the register, not the home's actual bills. A draughty band B house still qualifies; a warm band D one does not.
Additional Information
No register maps lenders to bands, because no lender is obliged to publish its green criteria or hold them steady. A product can be withdrawn between your offer and your completion. The band lookup below stops at the Scottish border, where a separate register applies.