The rising cost of living is causing consumers to think again about retrofitting, a survey from RICS and YouGov has found.
While previous research from RICS found that homeowners were citing cost of retrofitting as a barrier, new research shows that consumers are now more concerned about the cost of living than upgrading their homes.
The new research backs up previous calls made by the institution in 2020 for more policy measures to incentivise industry and consumers to retrofit the UK housing stock. The research found that while 34% of homeowners said they would invest in green technology to lower bills in the future, 45% would be focusing on using any savings to pay for their existing living expenses. Meanwhile, 51% who confirmed they hadn’t already installed new energy saving measures in their homes but would know how to, said it was because of the costs involved.
Even those who would consider it to make their home more attractive to prospective buyers, 40% said they’d only consider spending around £1000 to £5000 on energy improvements, which could pay for some solar panels but wouldn’t cover the heat-pump.
To review the potential impact that failure to support consumers would have on the housing market, 55% would consider installing energy saving schemes if they knew it would make their property more attractive when it came to selling up.
This latest research follows the RICS January 2020 Residential Market Survey where members operating in the residential sales and lettings market stated that without strong market driven incentives, regulation was the policy lever with the greatest potential to improve energy efficiency outcomes.
Sam Rees, senior public affairs officer at RICS, said: “A suitably retrofitted, low-carbon home can help with the long-term challenges of the cost of living and reducing high levels of energy consumption. Achieving this however is not cheap.
“With the UK government giving financial support to homeowners to support them with rising energy prices, RICS is calling on the government to extend this support and provide additional financial incentives to homeowners to encourage retrofitting and ultimately helping to tackle the cause of high energy usage.
“Before any significant investment is made on retrofit measures, RICS urges homeowners and the government to ensure a retrofit assessment is undertaken on the property first – ensuring that no unintended consequences occur such as overheating or increased energy demand.”
>>Read more about how inflation is impacting the industry here.
