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Viewing report
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2010 EU Home Owners' Perception of Green Materials in Buildings
Frost & Sullivan, Dec 2010, Pages: 114
This Frost & Sullivan research service titled 2010 EU Home Owners' Perception of Green Materials in Buildings is based on Frost & Sullivan’s recent online survey covering over 1,000 home owners and future home owners (those who plan on purchasing a home within the next two years). The study aims to assess the EU home owner/future home owners’ awareness of and preference for green homes, green materials, and green products. In addition, this study also analyses purchase decisions and process, importance of features/attributes, as well as current and future usage and implementations, plans to implement, and reasons for the decision.
Market Overview
Future Home Owners Give the Thumbs Up to Green Products and Services
The overall awareness about green homes is high in the EU, with almost half of the respondents surveyed identifying “green homes” unaided. Awareness about green homes is highest among current home owners, but it is the future homeowner segment that has higher familiarity and plans to install the various green home products/services surveyed. This is especially true if a national/local government or a utility company offers grants or rebates. In fact, most future home owners think that the use of green products would have a high impact on the environment and cost reduction. Yet, the likelihood of green purchases is moderate. Current home owners are only moderately aware of national/local government programmes for home owners, but they are even less aware about utility company rebates. Awareness levels of the government programmes among future home owners are highest in Germany and France and are much lower in Spain and the United Kingdom.
Generally, rebates and grants are only somewhat enticing to current home owners investing in various green products and services. Most future purchases are likely to be made with the intention of reducing the costs of home maintenance, rather than mitigating the negative impact on the environment. “Not surprisingly, the largest percentage of current home owners report that the overall cost of a home had a significant influence on their decision to purchase a house,” says the analyst of this research. “The same results are reflected in the indices when limited control expenses (overall cost, tax and insurance expenses) are chosen by the majority to have the highest influence on the home purchase decision.”
Home builders and contractors should not be deterred by the importance of the overall costs of a house as a purchase criterion; instead, they should focus on the emphasis placed by future home owners on green home products and services. Suppliers of green products and services should consider touting the long-term financial benefits of green homes. Promotional messages that combine returns-on-investment with environmental benefits could go a long way in persuading cost-conscious future home owners.
When comparing future and current home owners, it is interesting to note that the former appears to have greater aspirations of being environment friendly. However, they are not as knowledgeable as current home owners of home ownership costs (loan, taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities). Thus, future home owners are more likely to want to own a dream home, while current home owners are more familiar with the true costs of home ownership. “While current home owners would like to incorporate more green home products/services in their homes, doing so will require monetary resources and physical effort that are not always freely available,” notes the analyst.
More than half of future home owners expect to purchase a new-built construction; however, 40 per cent of them are delaying new home purchases by 18 to 24 months. The vast majority of current home owners’ homes are at least six years old and the owners are familiar with or currently have energy efficient lighting (50 per cent), advanced window (glazing) systems (48 per cent) and garden waste recycling services (44 per cent). Green products and services such as energy efficient lighting or home insulation, which are not cost- or effort-intensive, are more popular than those that require steep up-front investments. For instance, the setting up of solar panel systems involves considerable effort and money. Such labour-intensive installations have fewer takers than easy-to-install systems such as lighting and home insulation.
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