Energy averaging cannot be applied for the purposes of HQM, which means the energy credits scored are specific to the individual home being assessed.
This means that individual homes within the same block can score significantly different outputs.
This approach has been taken because HQM is driven by the consumer and its outputs need to relate to the actual home that the consumer is looking to purchase or rent. This is particularly important for aspects like cost, which in practice, can vary significantly between apartments within the same block. If costs were averaged across the building, they would have very little relevance to people’s bills.
In this respect HQM follows the same principles as EPCs, instead of Building Regulations and the Code for Sustainable Homes, which act as regulatory drivers for carbon reduction rather than individual home performance.
This approach applies across other issues in HQM. For example, penthouse luxury apartments may be more likely to score better in issues like ‘Daylight’ or ‘Access and space’ compared to smaller mid-level apartments within the same block, which may be more energy efficient and cheaper to run.
