Ditch The Home Cinema For A Rainwater Tank?

New research shows what people really want in their new home.
There are eight million households in Australia. Every year around 100,000
new houses are built, and about 50,000 flats or apartments. Another half a
million households move to a new home. Australians are one of the most
mobile populations on earth.
A recent survey looked at a series of household features and technologies desired by Australians in the
areas of digital entertainment, building materials, communications, home automation and sustainability.
The outcome showed what new home buyers find the most appealing.
Overall, only 28 per cent surveyed were found to want a room dedicated to a home cinema, with the highest figures being for those aged 30-39 and 40-49, but even in these age groups approximately 33 per cent of people want a dedicated room, dropping to 23 per cent for people aged 50-59, and below
10 per cent for people over 60.
These numbers are much lower than for other technology features, with the ability to get broadband Internet showing as “very important” to two-thirds of new home buyers but other features like good insulation and energy
efficient lighting, or “green” features like rainwater tanks and solar energy rating more highly.
Surveyed subjects were also asked about the importance of these various technologies and how much they would be prepared to pay for them.
Graeme Philipson, research director for Connection Research described the report as the largest study ever undertaken in Australia to determine what new home buyers want in their home.
“By asking people about a whole range of features and technologies, we are able to determine their relative importance,” said Mr Philipson. “For example, wealthier households are much more likely to want home automation
– but only a little more likely to want water tanks. And 20 per cent of people are willing to pay more than $5000 for a home security system – with males far more security conscious than females.”
Mr Philipson added that the finding about home cinemas is at variance with what many home builders and home entertainment suppliers would have us believe, with most new project homes now containing a second lounge
room or “entertainment centre”, but research shows that these are being used for many purposes, and not just for home cinemas.
The report also found that approximately 60 per cent of respondents have no
interest in home automation technologies, indicating that more needs to be
done to highlight the energy monitoring and saving capabilities of a true home
automation system.
The report found that the benefits of good thermal insulation were well understood, with over 90 per cent of people describing it as important.
The report also found that most people want to stay in familiar surroundings, with only a minority seeking to change from city to country or vice versa, and the only exception being the rural inland, where 80 per cent to 90 per cent of people wanted to move towards the coast or to a town or city suburbs.
Large numbers of respondents to the survey were found to be willing to spend $5,000, $10,000 or even more to add certain features to their new home, with the most favoured features being “green” ones such as solar water heating, rainwater tanks, better insulation, higher quality building materials and solar electricity.
For information on any home-related subject the internet was found to now rate highest, followed by newspapers and magazines, then radio and television.
The full report contains nearly 100 pages of analysis, with detailed demographic cross-tabs and further detailed analysis for the New South Wales, Victorian and Queensland markets. It can be found at:
http://www.connectionresearch.com.au