Mark Stücklin
A new study reveals that the vast majority of Spanish homes are energy inefficient. Owners can still sell or rent them, but European energy targets mean pressure to renovate is only going in one direction.
A remarkable 94% of Spain’s residential property stock has an inefficient energy rating of D to G, according to a new study from Accumin Intelligence based on official energy performance certificate data.
The State of Energy Efficiency in Spain 2026 report uses certificates registered by Spain’s autonomous regions and reported to the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITERD). Although only 39% of Spanish homes currently have a registered energy performance certificate, Accumin has used statistical modelling to estimate efficiency across the entire housing stock.
Among homes with certificates, 92.5% are rated D to G. Accumin estimates the figure rises to 94.2% when uncertified homes are included.
The main culprit is age. Much of Spain’s housing stock was built before meaningful energy-efficiency standards existed, whilst energy-efficient new-build homes represent only around 4% of the total.
Could inefficient homes become harder to sell or rent?
For owners, the obvious question is whether poor energy efficiency could eventually become more than just an expensive inconvenience.
Spain already requires an Energy Performance Certificate when an existing home is sold or rented to a new tenant, but there is currently no minimum rating that a home must achieve before it can be sold or rented.
Elsewhere in Europe, however, governments have gone further. In France, G-rated homes can no longer generally be offered for residential rental, with F-rated properties following in 2028 and E-rated homes in 2034.
The revised EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive does not impose an equivalent ban on individual inefficient homes. Instead, member states must introduce measures to reduce average energy consumption across their residential housing stock by at least 16% by 2030 compared with 2020, rising to 20–22% by 2035, with much of the improvement coming from the worst-performing homes.
So there is no impending EU rule saying that a Spanish home rated F or G cannot be sold or rented. But with Spain facing a particularly inefficient housing stock, the direction of travel is clear: owners of poorly performing properties should expect increasing pressure and incentives to renovate.
A huge renovation challenge
Spain has a mountain to climb. Accumin estimates that meeting the country’s 2030 objectives will require renovating the thermal envelope of 1.2 million homes and replacing 3.5 million heating and hot-water systems over the next four years.
Even that would still leave most Spanish homes inefficient. Accumin calculates that the current renovation rate would have to increase fivefold to achieve an intermediate level of efficiency, and tenfold to approach the predominantly efficient housing stock envisaged for 2050.
For homeowners thinking about selling in the years ahead, energy efficiency is therefore worth keeping an eye on. There is no French-style restriction in Spain today, but with 94% of the country’s homes currently rated in the inefficient D-to-G range, any future tightening of the rules could have significant implications for property values, saleability and renovation costs.
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