What do homebuyers want?
Whathouse is the leading new homes property portal and this week they released their 2022 New Home Buyer Survey. The survey asked homebuyers across the UK what the most and least important attributes of their next home would be, and you might find the results surprising.
First Time Buyers appear more interested in having a driveway than smart devices in their home
Next steppers were the most demanding, but it was all about space: spare rooms, a loft, a garden, a home office, but not a garage
Empty nesters appeared to be the most tech-savvy, the silver surfers wanted the smartest homes and those looking for their forever home had a very 'green' mindset, but were not very green-fingered...
What do First Time Buyers Want?
According to the WhatHouse? 2022 survey the most important attribute of their new home was:
A driveway
It surprised us that the most important attribute related to a place to park their car rather than say energy efficiency, a place to work from home or fast broadband.
What do First Time Buyers not want?
Despite wanting a driveway First Time Buyers did not want:
An EV Charging point, which, given the demographic of the first time buyers surveyed surprised us, especially as in 2030 you won't be able to buy a new traditional petrol or diesel car.
They also were not fussed about Smart Doorbells, and perhaps more surprisingly during this time of rising energy costs, a smart thermostat was not important to those first-time buyers who responded to the survey.
Given the age distribution of the first time buyers responding to the survey, we were surprised that technology and running costs were so low down their list of wants and so high up their lists of 'nots'.
What do Next Steppers want?
WhatHouse? Define Next Steppers as people who are still climbing the ladder, they may be moving to their second, third or even fourth home, but they view this next move as a stepping stone rather than their forever home.
Next steppers are quite a demanding bunch, perhaps a growing family or just growing pains experienced in their current home means that next steppers are clear about what they want from their next home.
A private garden,
Loft space
USB Plug sockets
Spare room
Dedicated Office
Energy efficiency
What do next steppers not want?
For next steppers the least important attributes for their next home are
A garage, and
Superfast broadband
What do empty nesters want?
For those looking to move now that their children have left home, the Whathouse survey revealed that empty nesters wanted
Communal green spaces
Smart doorbells
Superfast broadband
Smart thermostat
What do empty nesters not want?
The least important attributes were
A driveway
Loft space
Neighbours at a similar stage in life
USB plug sockets
Energy efficiency
Low running costs
We were surprised that the empty nesters appeared to be the most tech-savvy of the homebuyers questioned by Whathouse. It seems that the savvy silver surfers know their tech and want their homes to be as smart and as switched on as they are.
Interestingly, unlike their first time buyer offspring for the empty nesters a driveway is less important than broadband and smart devices.
What makes a forever home?
Whathouse describes the forever home as the home you have been working towards and the one you expect to live in for a very long time
The key attributes according to the Whathouse survey of people buying their forever home were
A garage
Neighbours at a similar stage in life
EV charging point
Low running costs
Shared residential services
Surprisingly the least important factor was a private garden
We would have thought that in your forever home you would want everything, so we were not surprised to see a desire for both a garage and an EV Charging point, but the fact the least important attribute was a private garden surprised us, especially as this survey was completed after two years of COVID and several lockdowns. Perhaps the forever home requires not only a private garden, but a gardener to tend to it!
