Energy performance certificates in the Turin real estate market.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) on the Italian real estate market, focusing on old buildings. The contribution of EPC labels to house prices and to market liquidity was measured, in order to analyse different aspects of the selling process. A traditional hedonic model was employed to explain the variables of listing price, transaction price, time on the market and bargaining outcome. In addition to EPC labels, the building construction period and the main features of apartments were included in the model. A sample of 879 transactions of old properties in Turin in 2011-2014 was considered. A first hedonic model let us suppose that low EPC labels (E, F and G) were priced in the market, although EPC labels explained only 6-8% of price variation. A second full hedonic model, which included apartment characteristics, revealed that EPC labels had no impact on prices. In Italy EPC has been mandatory for house transactions since 2009, so there are few studies on the effect of EPC on the Italian real estate market, at least to our knowledge. Furthermore, unusually for the Italian context, in this paper also transaction prices were analysed, in addition to the more frequently used listing prices.