Yahoo Finance Brits will spend an extra £23,271 for an eco-friendly home
Ensuring their homes and wider cities are helping the country become eco-friendlier is a high priority for Brits, new research has suggested.
Hard landscaping manufacturer Marshalls, asked 2,000 UK residents on how much value they placed on eco-friendly features such as sustainable materials, water conservation and solar panels when looking for a new home.
While just under a third of respondents (32%) said they take no consideration of the environmental impact of a property in their decision, the majority (56%) claimed they would always take this into account, with a further 12% stating they would not choose a property that wasn’t eco-friendly in some way.
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Of those who place the environmental impact of their homes as a high priority, over half (56%) would also be willing to pay additional costs to ensure it was as sustainable as possible.
With the average UK home costing £232,710, according to the latest Land Registry data, the majority of those surveyed stated they would spend up to £23,271 in additional costs to ensure their new property wasn’t damaging to the environment.
This level of environmental responsibility doesn’t just stop with their own homes however, with Brits also believing it should be business-owners and home-owners who foot the bill to ensure city centres are as environmentally friendly as possible through features such as vertical forests, bio-mimicry and roof gardens.
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While many of the UK’s cities and towns have already pledged to improve their natural environment by implementing a more urban forest atmosphere, the research found 62% of Brits believe any further developments in this field should be funded from private building owners, rather than councils or governments.
Chris Harrop, director of sustainability and marketing at Marshalls, said: “It is encouraging to see so many people prioritising eco-friendly features in the decision-making process when looking for a new property. It can sometimes be a daunting experience to include additional features into a project, however the study shows that there is a clear desire in the market to see more properties embrace these features.
“The industry is already embracing this trend and we have seen strong growth is in environmental and ethical product such as low-carbon permeable paving and high ethical standards.
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“However, there is always more that can be done by embracing the ideologies of biomimicry and urban greening to help the UK move forward into a future of sustainable urban environments.”
