On 24 May 2026 the BER system moved from fifteen bands to eight. This is the plain-English guide for commercial property owners, landlords, agents and solicitors.
Last updated: June 2026 · 9 min read
On 24 May 2026, Ireland made the biggest change to the Building Energy Rating system since it was introduced. The familiar fifteen-band scale, A1 down to G, has been replaced by a simplified eight-band scale running from a new A0 category to G. The change applies to every BER published from that date, for homes and for commercial buildings alike.
The new system was introduced by the European Union (Energy Performance of Buildings) Regulations 2026 (S.I. No. 168 of 2026 and S.I. No. 195 of 2026), which transpose the recast EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive into Irish law. The aim is simple: make ratings easier to understand and directly comparable with energy certificates across the rest of the EU.
If you own, manage, sell or let commercial property, here is what actually changed, what it means in practice, and what is coming next.
Try the free converter: your rating on the new scale →
All sub-categories are gone. There is no more B2 versus B3, no more C1 versus C3. A building is now simply an A, a B, a C and so on. The one addition is at the top: A0, a new category reserved for zero-emission buildings. To earn it, a building must have a very high energy performance and use no fossil fuels on site.
For non-domestic buildings, the new regulations go further than relabelling. A schedule to the regulations sets out total primary energy thresholds, measured in kWh per square metre per year, for every BER class across a range of building types including offices, hotels and schools. Your building's class is determined by where its primary energy figure falls against the thresholds for its type.
Two new terms now sit at the heart of the Irish system. A zero-emission building, or ZEB, is one with a very high energy performance that needs zero or a very low amount of energy, produces no on-site carbon emissions from fossil fuels, and produces zero or very low operational greenhouse gas emissions. ZEB is set to replace the NZEB standard you may know from recent new builds.
ZEB Renovate applies the same idea to existing buildings, with separate, more achievable thresholds for renovated properties. The thresholds vary by building type and are designed to give owners of older commercial stock a realistic renovation target.
We have written a full plain-English guide to both standards: ZEB and ZEB Renovate explained.
Yes. Every existing BER certificate remains valid for ten years from its date of issue, unless the building undergoes a major renovation in the meantime. A certificate issued under the old scale continues to satisfy every mandatory requirement: sale, letting, conveyancing and advertising. There is no obligation to get a new assessment because of the scale change alone.
That said, there are situations where a fresh certificate on the new scale works in your favour, particularly after energy upgrades or ahead of a sale or lease where comparability matters. We cover the detail in Is my BER cert still valid after the 2026 changes?
Certificates issued from 24 May 2026 carry noticeably more information than before. Alongside the rating itself, the new format presents detail on energy use, climate-related performance including greenhouse gas emissions, the contribution from renewables, and recommendations for improving the building. Certificates also carry a QR code linking to further information about the rating and potential upgrades.
For commercial property this extra visibility cuts both ways. Strong performers will find it easier to evidence their quality to tenants, buyers and lenders. Poorly performing buildings will find their weaknesses harder to gloss over, with knock-on implications for asset value, leasing prospects and financing conversations.
The 24 May changes are the first instalment of a wider programme. The dates already locked in are worth having in your diary now.
New public and non-residential buildings with a useful floor area over 250 square metres must be solar-ready, fit to host rooftop photovoltaic or solar thermal installations, where technically and economically feasible.
Solar-ready obligations begin phasing in for existing public and non-residential buildings, depending on building type and size.
All new buildings owned by public bodies must be zero-emission buildings.
All new buildings must be zero-emission buildings.
Further measures, including minimum energy performance standards for the worst-performing non-residential buildings and voluntary renovation passports, are still working their way through transposition. We will publish updates on our Insights page as the detail lands.
If you are selling or letting: your existing cert is still fully valid, so nothing blocks your transaction. If your building has had upgrades since its last assessment, a new cert on the new scale may present it considerably better to the market.
If you hold a portfolio: the new thresholds make this the right moment to take stock of where each building sits and how far it is from the standards lenders and larger tenants are starting to ask about. Our portfolio assessment service handles multi-unit instructions as a single programme. And if you want every obligation, deadline and checklist in one working document, that is exactly what the Landlord Compliance Pack is for.
If you advise clients: solicitors and estate agents are fielding the same questions every day this month. We have dedicated pages on how we work with solicitors and estate agents. We have put the answers on one page you can keep on file or send straight to a client.
A one-page guide for solicitors and estate agents. The new scale, certificate validity, and what to tell clients, written by a SEAI-registered assessor.
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