Energy Performance Certificates in Streatham

Common property types

• Large Victorian houses: The streets off Streatham High Road, including Leigham Court Road and Prentis Road, are lined with substantial three and four-storey Victorian houses from the 1880s-1890s. Many remain as family homes, but a large proportion have been converted into flats. Solid brick walls and high ceilings are universal.
• Edwardian terraces: Found around Streatham Common and along Greyhound Lane, these 1900-1910 properties are slightly smaller than the Victorian stock but share the same solid wall construction. Bay windows and original fireplaces are common features.
• Converted flats: A very high proportion of Streatham's housing stock consists of flats carved from larger Victorian and Edwardian houses. Conversion quality varies enormously, from professional refurbishments with modern insulation to basic 1970s splits with minimal thermal improvement.
• 1930s semis near Streatham Vale: The area towards Mitcham has pockets of inter-war semi-detached houses with cavity walls, lower ceilings, and more conventional layouts. These tend to score better than the period stock and respond well to standard improvements.

Typical EPC issues we find in Streatham

• Solid walls throughout: The vast majority of Streatham's pre-1919 housing has solid brick walls. External insulation changes the character of the streetscape, and internal insulation reduces already-divided room sizes in conversions.
• Shared heating in converted houses: Some older conversions retain a shared boiler serving multiple flats via a communal heating system. These score poorly because individual flats have limited control over their heating, and the shared boiler is often old.
• High ceilings increasing heated volume: Victorian rooms with 3m+ ceilings have a larger volume to heat than modern equivalents. The EPC calculation penalises this, as more energy is needed to maintain comfortable temperatures.