Book Description

This BRE Information Paper gives feedback from a survey of consumers that will be invaluable to home builders who are developing low-carbon homes. Such feedback is vital to understanding what consumers are looking for and what would encourage investment in these types of properties. It will help home builders to understand how best to stimulate interest and investment in the low-carbon housing market, remove the barriers and build homes that are designed to meet more closely the needs of consumers.

The UK Government has set ambitious targets for all new homes to be zero carbon by 2016. To meet this target, many developers have begun to build and test exemplar low- and zero-carbon houses, some of which are exhibited on the BRE Innovation Park. BRE's Social Research Team conducted almost 300 interviews at the INSITE09 event, collecting consumer feedback on these low-carbon demonstration houses. (12 pages)

Contents
Collecting the data
The participants
Results
- How do consumers rate new low-carbon houses?
- What do consumers particularly like and dislike about low-carbon houses? (Design and layout. Construction. Environmental conditions. Technology)
- How likely are consumers to invest in low-carbon homes?
- How much would consumers expect to pay?
- What would encourage investment?
- What would discourage investment?
Results from participants able to invest in multiple properties
- What would consumers expect to pay for multiple low-carbon houses?
- What would encourage investment in multiple low-carbon houses?
- What would discourage investment in multiple low-carbon houses?
Conclusions
Recommendations
Further reading from BRE
The BRE Innovation Park