According to a property search engine Globrix.com, Canny sellers had been increasingly pushing their properties’ green credentials to gain a competitive edge in the dog-eat-dog housing market.
Within a year or so, the company has witnessed a 23% increase in the number of properties listed as ‘environmentally friendly.’ The company also believes that this figure is not a typical estate agent hyperbole.
The company also stated that the number of houses advertised with solar heating increased by a third over the same period, and there was also a 28% rise in the number of properties on the website with fitted solar panels.
On the other hand, it was believed that the feed-in tariff scheme was partially behind the rise because sellers believed that homes offering a fixed payment to those generating electricity through solar panels or micro-wind turbines were more valuable. More than 28,000 solar systems and around 1,300 wind turbines had been installed since the tariffs began in April 2010.
Jennifer Warner from Globrix.com expressed that the rise in the number of properties listed as environment friendly might be a result of people looking to improve their properties and save money while the economy took a nose dive. She said that during the recession, people had been looking for every way possible to save money, so they decided to install their own energy-generating devices, or put in insulation to minimize the impact of rising energy bills. She also added that the new regulations were likely to see the trend continue.
Warner also said the fact that an Energy Performance Certificate was now required when a property is constructed, sold or rented also made the benefits of having an eco-friendly home much more transparent and easier to quantify.