Volume Home Building: The Provision of Sustainability Information for New Homebuyers

Abstract

The new residential housing sector is producing approximately 200,000 homes a year that could benefit from methods to increase sustainability and energy efficiency. Currently, there is limited implementation of sustainability measures beyond mandatory minimum requirements in Australia. New homebuyers are often the scapegoats for the poor sustainability adoption due to their perceived lack of interest and willingness to pay. However, their knowledge and engagement in sustainability is likely to be strongly guided by information provided by the volume builders. This paper investigates the sustainability information that homebuyers are provided by builders, as communicated through their websites. Web searching as an important means of information gathering in the preliminary stages of the process for new homebuyers. This paper reports on the analysis of Australia’s Home Industry Association’s top 100 volume builders’ websites and their provision of sustainability information. The results suggest the lack of sustainability-related information provided by builders is contributing to disengagement by consumers in the sustainability features available in new homes.

Sustainability ratings in residential development: a worthwhile endeavour?

“…This was found in the spot investigation of the websites and display suites of the developments. As noted earlier, there was a lack of information and disclosure of the certification to potential purchasers of those from the certified estates; further from a dwelling perspective, this experience supports a large study of the Housing Industry of Australia’s Top 100 homebuilders’ websites and the limited amount of sustainability information communicated by Warren-Myers and McRae (2017). The lack of information could suggest a level of moral hazard, resulting in the distrust or lack of awareness demonstrated by consumers in this study.…”

“…Given respondent responses that the ratings have a role to play in their decision making, perceived value and resale implications, it was puzzling to see the lack of knowledge about the ratings they actually had for their dwelling and development. The lack of awareness supports findings by Warren-Myers (2017), who examined whether new home buyers (consumers) were provided with information pertaining to their six star rating for their dwelling (DweTool1). In the interviewed sample of 20 consumers, 25 per cent actually received a stamped plan or certificate indicating their six star rating.…”

“…Examining the cost implications and weighing up the benefits perceived and received requires knowledge and information. This information unfortunately is in short supply from new homebuilders through their websites and in standard inclusions for new homes (Warren-Myers and McRae, 2017; Warren-Myers et al , 2017), limiting capacity for home buyers to justify the possible costs to receive the benefits, if there are “additional” costs per se . This is further compounded by the uncertainty of whether there is any value add as a result of the sustainable features incorporated in homes.…”

The wandering energy stars: The challenges of valuing energy efficiency in Australian housing

“…Yet, Warren-Myers et al's [94] study in a sustainably certified estate using a small sample of new home buyers found that resident engagement with the environmentally friendly aspects of home purchase was limited due to a lack of awareness and trust in sustainability certifications, which stemmed from poor communication of information from the developer and builder to new residents. This lack of awareness and trust is not unsurprising, when limited and often misleading information is provided and communicated to consumers by the volume builders about their homes energy efficiency and sustainability [95,96,97]. Romanach et al [98,99] also identified that residents would seek more energy efficient homes.…”

A New Demand-Supply Model to Enable Sustainability in New Australian Housing

“…This study used audio recorded semi-structured interviews with 18 Volume Builders as key actors within the industrialized home building system from types of firms including speculative builders, order builders and franchise order builders [21]. These 18 participants represent 55% of the top 20 builders, 32% of the top 50, and 18% of the top 100.…”