Stimulating Market Demand for Greener Homes

Scotland’s new homes are "greener", more energy efficient and more sustainable than they have ever been. 

However this advance in building performance has not been the effect of market demand for low carbon homes.

Homes for Scotland believes that there may be a significant opportunity to position "greener" homes as premium products, further increasing their desirability as well as sales levels.

The challenge which exists is instigating a behavioural change in the way consumers look at house purchase.

Feedback from home builders has cited the location, price and layout as being the key factors they believe influence purchasing decisions. The additional cost attached to the building of greener homes is believed to be something the consumer is not willing to pay for.  It is also not currently taken into consideration in the valuation of new homes.

What is unclear is whether consumers are aware of the energy efficiency of their prospective homes, understand the financial incentives of living in an energy efficient home and if this information is important to them at the time of purchase.

Without clear performance messaging (such as the ‘miles per gallon’ which has been effective within the automotive industry), it has been difficult to convey the benefits of energy efficient homes.

This project seeks to address these issues by stimulating behavioural change amid consumers by developing a new marketing and communications strategy that member companies may utilise in their own advertising campaigns.