Customer Survey
- New Homes Today 2002 - Introduction
- Key Findings 2002
- Preference for New Housing 2002
- Affordable Housing and Planning Policies
- Executive Summary (2001)
- Glamorous, Aspirational, Well Designed (2001)
- More people want new homes (2001)
- Higher density homes - the impact of PPG3 (2001)
- The power of brand in house building (2001)
- Tomorrow's Homes Today (2001)
Key Findings 2002
Affordable Housing
- By far the biggest concern for private home owners is the effect on re-sale values.
- There is a belief that rented home tenants don´t look after their property.
- Higher socio-economic groups are more open-minded.
- If affordable housing is designed and built to blend in with private it is more acceptable.
- There is a developing awareness that affordable housing is needed for key workers in expensive areas.
PPG3 and Planning
- Consumers appreciate the mix of housing design and size on modern housing developments.
- Car parking is seen as a real problem. Rather than making the environment safer, narrow roads, lack of parking and subsequent traffic problems are perceived as making some developments quite dangerous.
- Footpaths and cycle ways are seen as an improvement.
- There is a feeling that homes are being crammed in these days for the benefit of the developers.
- Developers need to sell the PPG3 concept to their customers. Where the researchers found home owners who had had the concepts explained to them, there was a marked pride in the development and an understanding that this is the way forward.
- Higher socio-economic groups are more open-minded about new planning guidelines.
Community
- Today´s busy lifestyles make developing a sense of community more difficult. However most people still want to feel part of a community.
- Community facilities should be considered first rather than last. Although economically a problem for housebuilders, play areas, community halls and village centres must be provided earlier in the life of a development (Camborne, Cambridge is a good example of how it can be done).
- However, home buyers do not understand the concept of planning gain. Housebuilders need to better market the positive community benefits that can arise from the development process.
- Local shops are an essential part of a community. This is especially true in inner city areas.
Design
- External design is recognised as much improved over the last few years.
- Layouts and road patterns cause parking and traffic problems.
- Garden sizes are adequate.
- Garages are essential.
- Space for dining is necessary but doesn´t always have to be in the form of a separate dining room.
- People are using dining rooms and spare bedrooms for a variety of things.
- House builders are still not providing enough facilities for accommodating new technology.
- 3 bedroom "family homes" are considered too small for families.
- Some singles or couples have to buy four bedroom homes in order to gain what they consider to be adequate living space.
Preference for new
- Only 9% of respondents would definitely not consider buying a new home.
- 27% would exclusively consider buying a new home. The greatest competition therefore comes not from cross selling between developers, but from the second hand market.
Preference for builder
- Name of builder has little influence in decision to buy.
- The public believes that all builders are the same.
Why are housebuilding brands so weak?
- House buying is a very infrequent purchase, even when compared with other high-ticket items such as cars.
- The marketing budgets of even the largest builders are relatively small when compared with, for example, motor manufacturers.
- New homes do not carry brand names.
- 'New homes’ appears to be the brand in consumer minds.