SPECIAL FEATURE: What consumers want housebuilders to know in 2022 – Zoopla

SPECIAL FEATURE: Alex Rose, Director of New Homes at Zoopla, has written an article on what consumers want housebuilders to know in 2022.

Two years after entering the first national lockdown, we find a housing market that has outperformed expectations in terms of transactions and house price growth. Initially, strong sales and buyer demand could be explained by the ‘space race’, considerations around work-life balance, and government intervention. But are the same factors still driving market activity?

To explore this further, we surveyed 2,615 people to capture the views of those who have either bought a home in the last 18 months or intend to buy one over the next 18 months. The results were fascinating.

What do buyers want?

The ‘reassessment of the home’ and the desire for space was a clear theme for both resale and new home respondents. Over half of those surveyed had bought or were looking to buy a detached or semi-detached house. The extra living space provided by larger homes was also important to buyers, with some 70% of respondents looking for 3+ bed properties.

Almost 20% of new build buyers/intenders were open to the idea of living in a new-build apartment. Regionally, this figure rises to 1 in 4 buyers/ intenders in the South East and London, indicating that a combination of affordability constraints and stock availability plays a greater part in their decision.

Following the pandemic, outdoor space was often cited as an important feature for those wanting to move. Some 84% of survey respondents said they wanted a garden. Indeed, this has been a long-term requirement for buyers since before the pandemic – with ‘gardens’ and ‘garages’ remaining the top 2 keyword searches on Zoopla among new home and resale buyers over the last 3 years.

Some 94% of all respondents said they wanted some form of parking at their new home, with off-road parking – either a garage or a driveway – a preference for the majority.

Energy efficiency is moving up the agenda

As day-to-day living costs continue to rise, 2022 looks set to be a challenging year for consumers – particularly as they attempt to balance their personal finances with the ambition to live a greener lifestyle.

Our survey shows that energy efficiency now plays a far greater role in buyer decision-making. In fact, almost 70% of new home buyers said that energy efficiency was an important factor in their decision to buy a new-build property. In this respect, new-build homes have a clear advantage over their resale counterparts. In 2021, some 84% of newly built homes received an ‘A’ or ‘B’ EPC rating compared to just 3% of resale homes.

The cost savings can also be significant with our analysis of government energy performance certificate (EPC) data showing the running costs of a new-build house can be up to 52% less when compared to similar resale properties. However, our research shows that many buyers are underestimating these cost savings, and this highlights that although buyers’ willingness to move to a greener home is high – in both new home and resale markets – there is still a knowledge gap around the potential savings on offer for households living in ‘A’ or ‘B’ rated properties.

The importance of consumer satisfaction

Finally, the importance of consumer satisfaction cannot be underestimated. Our survey also shows a clear correlation between buyers’ overall satisfaction with the purchase process and the speed of the transaction once an offer has been accepted.

Buyers who had a ‘very good’ or ‘good’ experience typically saw the process between offer accepted and exchange take less than half the time compared to those who had a ‘poor’ experience (65 versus 138 days).

The survey results also highlighted how communication is very important to consumers. Our survey shows that most buyers in the new homes and resale markets used a combination of email and phone calls to manage the buying process across multiple stakeholders (including lenders, conveyancers, surveyors and agents/housebuilders) and over 85% of buyers were receptive to streamlining this process by using technology – such as an online portal that tracked and monitored the progress of their purchase end-to-end.

All in all, it’s clear there are lots of opportunities for housebuilders in the coming year to capitalise on what buyers want and stand out by prioritising the customer experience. To download the full report and gain even more insights, visit Zoopla’s Housebuilder Hub.