Developers will build the cheapest thing they're allowed to by code. While old world low energy homes were fairly custom, we know how to build low energy buildings and homes. The passive house standard [1] discusses repeatable low energy usage homes. The problem is that these designs are expensive. Developers build cheap houses that are only comfortable for use with lots of HVAC usage at low prices. People buy these cheap homes and then use energy to heat and cool. This places pressure on governments to keep energy prices low, which spurs higher consumption, and the cycle continues.
It doesn't help that most areas with jobs in the Anglo world are very expensive lots to build new housing. When the lot itself is so expensive, local governments will be loathe to mandate too much by code and make housing even less accessible. If France is better at reigning costs in, they should work on bringing their building codes up to lower energy standards.
It doesn't help that most areas with jobs in the Anglo world are very expensive lots to build new housing. When the lot itself is so expensive, local governments will be loathe to mandate too much by code and make housing even less accessible. If France is better at reigning costs in, they should work on bringing their building codes up to lower energy standards.
[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house