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▲ Derek Horrocks when choosing their next move. Agents are therefore likely fielding questions about everything from ventilation and glazing to natural shade and orientation, because buyers want to know what a property will actually feel like to live in across the seasons. That is a considerable shift from asking what a home has to asking how it performs.
This is not just reserved for people who are currently house hunting too. Ipsos polling conducted at the start of August found that 74 per cent of British adults are concerned about climate change, up from 69 per cent who recall feeling that way before the summer. However, most strikingly, 87 per cent of respondents think that it is likely Britain will see similar severe heatwaves in future summers – interpreting that people believe this is the new normal. But it is worth asking whether the buildings we are investing in over the next decade will have reached the same conclusion.
For anyone who owns housing stock, that reframes the conversation entirely. Thermal comfort has stopped being a comfort question and become an asset value question instead, homes that cannot hold a stable temperature will be worth less, cost more to run and become harder to let.
But the market only helps people who can move
A buyer who cares about glazing and orientation can act on it, whereas a tenant cannot. This is where it stops being about property listings and starts being about who is protected. Citizens Advice found that 51per cent of renters feel like they lack the basic control needed to stop their homes from overheating, against 40 per cent of homeowners. Some of this is based on design, but some of it is simply locked windows and a thermostat no one is allowed to touch. Its research into heat networks found that
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