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Green Building Is Up While Rest of Building Market is Down

Written by: Libe Chacos

Article Overview: An autumn 2008 study by McGraw-Hill Construction in partnership with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) in the USA shows fourty percent of builders find "building green" makes it easier to market in a down economy; 16% find it makes it much easier.

Green Building Is Up While Rest of Building Market is Down

The report from the US also shows that in sixty percent of builders claim homebuyers are willing to pay more for green homes, with "Quality" being the top driver behind green home building.

This seems to indicate that green homebuyers in today's market are not just "green consumers," but are also buying a green home for investment and performance reasons.

Harvey M. Bernstein, McGraw-Hill Construction vice president of Industry Analytics, Alliances and Strategic Initiatives advice is "Builders can no longer ignore the benefits and market advantages of green building. Especially considering today's market and current economic situation, builders need to differentiate themselves from their competitors and hold steady or prosper in the down economy. Green building gives builders that opportunity to expand their market share and ride out this economic slump."

In Australia the mood is much the same. In a survey carried out by RMIT 75% of people said that they were looking for builders who carried out environmentally aware practices.

Another survey by the Department of Environment and Conservation in NSW found that:

 People placed the environment 3rd after family and friends on a list of importance.
 87% of people say they were concerned a great deal or fair amount about environmental problems
 88% of people say there should definitely or probably be compulsory requirements for environmental performance of new homes, building development and renovations.

The other area of the market that is changing is consumer expectations. What was once considered energy efficient, or a green home now doesn’t make the grade. The bar has been raised higher.

One of Australia’s biggest home builders that sells over 1,000 homes per year is working with the CSIRO to create what they call a “zero energy house”. This house will be 70% more energy efficient than traditional houses and no CO2 will be created from living in the home.

It is being marketed as “the first of its kind in Australia” and “a completely new vision”.

The reality is that it’s not a new vision, and it’s not the first of its kind in Australia. Not even close. There are homes in cool climates like Tasmania and on the snow line in Victoria that use 1/10th what normal houses do to stay warm. And there are homes all over Australia, including Rockhampton that stay comfortable without air conditioning in summer.

How comfortable is your home?

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Article Tags: compulsory requirements, consumer expectations, csiro, current economic situation, department of environment, department of environment and conservation, down economy, economic slump, environment and conservation, environmental performance, environmental problems, green consumers, hill construction, home builders, performance reasons, rmit, s market, strategic initiatives, traditional houses, zero energy



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