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The most distinctive housing market in the UK: nearly two-thirds of homes are heated by oil, the gas network reaches only part of the country, and neither ECO nor the Boiler Upgrade Scheme operates here. The upgrade that pays back fastest is different as a result.
Households: DESNZ estimates for 2024. Housing stock: EPC register to 1 April 2026. Solar: DESNZ, 2024.
Median rating
65 points
Band spread
UK average
Median from the EPC register, bands from ONS.
Homes
751,000
Households in 2024, DESNZ estimate
Band C or better
40.7%
UK average 50.6%
Solar panels
430
Installations per 10,000 homes, 2024
Households are DESNZ estimates, band shares are from the EPC register for homes with a certificate, and solar is DESNZ deployment.
The housing
Age decides what the walls are made of, type decides what you can do to them, and the heating fuel decides whether a heat pump saves money or merely moves the emissions. Everything else follows from these three.
Share of homes by construction period.
Anything built before 1930 is almost certainly solid walled. Anything after 1990 has insulation in the cavity as built.
Share of homes by property type.
Flats are the hardest to improve: no roof of your own, nowhere for a cylinder, and a freeholder in the way.
Share of homes by built form.
Every shared wall is one that loses no heat, which is why a mid-terrace needs a smaller heat pump than a detached house of the same floor area.
Share of homes by main heating fuel.
Off-grid homes on oil or LPG pay the most per unit of heat, and gain the most from changing the system.
Share of homes by tenure, as the certificate recorded it.
Owners decide for themselves; tenants need a landlord to agree, and social landlords upgrade in whole estates. 36% of certificates don't say, and are left out.
Share of homes by wall construction and insulation.
An empty cavity is the cheapest big fix in the country. A solid wall can only be insulated inside or out, at many times the price.
Share of homes by roof, and loft insulation depth.
Current guidance is 270 mm in a loft. Anything under 100 mm is worth topping up before anything else.
From the EPC register to 1 April 2026: 543,107 homes with a certificate, each counted once from its latest. Homes that have never had one aren't included, and unknowns are left out of the shares.
Ratings
The median home here scores 65, which is band D. On the same certificates, the median potential score reaches band C — and that potential assumes every recommendation is carried out.
Median today
Median potential
UK average 50.6%
Bars are this area. The vertical rule on each track is the UK average for that band.
UK average
A bar to the right of the rule means this area has more of its homes in that band than the country as a whole.
Band shares are from the EPC register, over homes with a certificate. The median score is from the EPC register.
What needs doing
Every certificate records what the assessor found and lists the improvements that would raise the rating. Added up, they show where the easy work is still undone.
Cavity walls still empty
23.4%
Against 26.4% across UK
Lofts under 100 mm
13%
Against 21.2% across UK
Any single glazing
9.5%
Against 10.4% across UK
Off the gas grid
51.4%
Against 16.6% across UK
Heating, hot water and lighting
£1,074a year, on average
The certificate's own estimate, at standard occupancy and at the fuel prices its method used when it was lodged, not today's prices or anyone's actual bill.
From the EPC register to 1 April 2026, each home's latest certificate. Walls, lofts and glazing are as the assessor found or assumed them, so work done since a home's last certificate doesn't show.
What people fit
Homes per 10,000 with each measure fitted so far, against the UK figure for the same measure. The gap is rarely about the weather and usually about tenure, roof ownership and how generous the local grant route is.
Per 10,000 homes.
Both ends of each row are on the same scale, so the length of the connector is the size of the gap.
68per 10,000
Ranked 13 of 14 areas. The UK figure is 172.
430per 10,000
Ranked 12 of 14 areas. The UK figure is 601.
Heat pumps: homes whose certificate names a heat pump as the main heating, per 10,000 homes with a certificate.
Solar panels: solar installations of every size in 2024 (DESNZ), per 10,000 households. A few are on businesses, not homes. EPC certificates record panels on only 0.9% of homes, because most were lodged before the panels went up.
Costs
These are national figures, not Northern Ireland ones. Nothing published gives installed cost by area, so we don't invent a local premium: labour, access, parking and travel do move the price, and we will show by how much when quote data can.
| Measure | Typical cost | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Air source heat pump | £11,128–£15,627 | Boiler Upgrade Scheme, middle half of jobs |
| Solar panels | £8,000–£10,000 | EPC method |
| Cavity wall insulation | £900–£1,500 | EPC method |
| Solid wall insulation | £7,500–£11,000 | EPC method |
| New gas boiler | £2,200–£3,500 | EPC method |
| Loft insulation | £900–£1,200 | EPC method |
The EPC method's figure is the range the middle recommendation was given — the same for every home, so a guide rather than a quote. The heat pump figure is what Boiler Upgrade Scheme installers reported, with the grant still in it.
Grants
2 schemes reach this area. Which of them you qualify for turns on the household and the property, not on the postcode alone.
Councils
Approval rates are the authority's own record, across every kind of application. They vary far more within a region than between regions.
| Authority | Homes | Median | Approval rate | Decided in time | Conservation areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid Ulster | 57,700 | D | 97.4% | 10 weeks | |
| Ards and North Down | 67,600 | D | 96.7% | 12 weeks | |
| Derry City and Strabane | 58,600 | D | 96.6% | 11 weeks | |
| Fermanagh and Omagh | 45,100 | D | 96.6% | 12 weeks | |
| Belfast | 139,500 | D | 96.1% | 11 weeks |
1,180 applications decided in the last year, 97% approved, and 17.7 weeks to a decision on average. Most domestic work needs no application at all.
Homes are DESNZ household estimates, median bands come from the EPC register, and approval rates and decision speed are MHCLG's planning statistics — every kind of application, not only domestic work, and only the work that needed one. Conservation areas are still placeholders.
In short
Around 63% of homes burn oil, against 8% across the UK as a whole — the single biggest difference between Northern Ireland and everywhere else.
Neither ECO nor the Boiler Upgrade Scheme applies, so the Affordable Warmth Scheme and 0% VAT are effectively the whole toolkit.
The stock is the newest in the UK — nearly a fifth built since 1991 — and still rates worst, because oil heating is expensive per unit of heat.
Nearby
Best-rated stock in the UK, and the most generous grant package anywhere in it.
See the areaOldest stock in the UK, solid walls everywhere, plus Nest on top of the GB schemes.
See the areaMost terraced stock in England, and the largest share of ECO4 work.
See the areaArea figures are averages over hundreds of thousands of homes. They tell you what is likely, not what is true of your house — which is what the postcode check is for.
An area average is a starting point. A postcode gets the property's own record: its age, construction, current rating and what it could reach.