Tower Hamlets has sold more new-build flats than almost any other London borough in this data, yet those same new-build flats are far less likely to show up with a matched Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) than the borough's older stock. Of the 42,822 Tower Hamlets flats with at least one new-build sale on Land Registry's books, just 6.8% have a certificate matched on the EPC Open Data register. Among the 26,788 flats with no new-build sale on record, coverage is nearly four times higher, at 26.0%.
That's the reverse of what you'd expect. Every new home must carry a valid EPC before it can be marketed for sale, under the Energy Performance of Buildings (England and Wales) Regulations 2012. On paper, a freshly built flat should be one of the easiest properties to find a certificate for, not one of the hardest.
The coverage gap, by new-build status
| Flat group | Flats | EPC matched | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| No new-build sale on record | 26,788 | 6,978 | 26.0% |
| At least one new-build sale on record | 42,822 | 2,912 | 6.8% |
Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data and EPC Open Data, flats in Tower Hamlets, matched by address. Data fetched 25 October 2026.
This split sits inside a borough-wide flat coverage rate of 14.2%, already flagged as one of the lowest of any London borough in an earlier look at all 33 London boroughs' EPC coverage. That piece didn't separate out how much of Tower Hamlets' low flat coverage sits specifically in its new-build stock — this is that split.
A later sale is what actually finds a certificate
An EPC is logged when a home is built, sold or let, not on a fixed renewal schedule. So the clearest test of what's going on is whether a new-build flat has changed hands again since its original sale.
| New-build flats | Flats | EPC matched | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resold at least once since | 17,995 | 2,058 | 11.4% |
| Never resold since | 24,827 | 854 | 3.4% |
A later resale more than triples the match rate, consistent with the certificate being picked up at the point of that second transaction rather than the original new-build sale. But even the "resold since" group's 11.4% remains well below the 26.0% seen among flats that were never new-build sales at all, so a later sale only partly closes the gap.
The more recent the new-build sale, the worse the match rate
The sharpest pattern shows up inside the 24,827 flats that have only ever had their original new-build sale. Splitting these by the year of that sale produces a result that runs opposite to intuition: the more recently a flat was built and sold new, the less likely it is to have a matched certificate today.
| New-build sale year | Flats | EPC matched | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before 2008 | 4,679 | 620 | 13.3% |
| 2008-2014 | 4,978 | 106 | 2.1% |
| 2015-2019 | 6,545 | 102 | 1.6% |
| 2020-2022 | 6,502 | 23 | 0.4% |
| 2023 onward | 2,123 | 3 | 0.1% |
If missing certificates reflected neglect by owners of older flats, the pattern would run the other way: newer flats, further from any renewal deadline, would show the highest coverage. Instead, flats sold new since 2020 are matched to a certificate at a rate of well under 1%, despite an EPC being required at the point of their original marketing.
What's most likely going on
This isn't the first time a gap like this has shown up in this data. A single new-build street in Bristol's BS3 postcode district had zero of 49 flats match to a certificate despite being sold as new, reported in an earlier look at the area's flat market. The most plausible explanation in both cases is a data-matching gap between how Land Registry records a new-build flat's address and how the same flat is listed on the EPC Open Data register. Large modern developments often use flat-numbering and block-naming conventions, floor and unit numbers, and marketing names for blocks, that can diverge between the two public datasets, particularly soon after completion.
That points to a measurement limitation in matching two separate public datasets, not evidence that thousands of Tower Hamlets flats are being sold without a legally required certificate. An earlier piece on London's borough-by-borough EPC coverage already flagged Tower Hamlets as an exception to the capital's usual coverage pattern; a new-build-driven matching gap is a plausible part of why.
Why it matters for anyone checking a flat
For a buyer or renter checking a specific Tower Hamlets address, an absent certificate on the open register doesn't necessarily mean the flat has no valid EPC, especially if it was sold new within the last few years. It's worth asking a seller, letting agent or developer for the certificate directly rather than treating a blank record as the final word.
Try a Tower Hamlets postcode on Homecost to see what Land Registry and EPC data show for a specific address, or browse more cost intelligence guides covering EPC coverage across England's cities.