But surely, if you're thinking of buying house A or B, the actual monthly costs should be a very big part of the decision, and affect the price you can pay for

But surely, if you're thinking of buying house A or B, the actual monthly costs should be a very big part of the decision, and affect the price you can pay for each house (size of mortgage payment). Say, after salary, taxes, food you have 1000 euros per month that you can spend. There are two houses, where in one, you can spend 500 on mortgage and 500 on energy bills, and in the other, you can spend 700 on mortgage and 300 on energy bills. But if you just buy the house that has 500 on mortgage because "it's cheaper", it's not actually cheaper in total. This should also interest banks that give people mortgages. Also, if you rent that house out, if the energy cost is directly part of the rent, the house with the higher energy cost has a higher rent, hence it's less attractive. Again, market forces. So in reality, you can get more profit out of the house that has the lower energy cost, because in reality, the cost is not be passed directly to the renters.